Missing-Nin Naruto Namikaze
by stixz35
Summary: After the Pein Attack, Naruto is sentenced to death. Watch as Naruto becomes a missing ninja and still fight for world peace. But will he have to fight against those he loves? AU Kind of ish. Terrible with summaries.
1. Chapter 1

CH 1

Eyes wide open. Mouth agape. No other emotion then pure shock. He could not even move.

"W-what?"

Homura leaned forward. "Did I stutter boy?"

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Naruto screamed taking a step forward, fists clutched so hard blood trickled down his fingers.

Koharu shifted her hands to her lap. "The decision has been made."

Naruto slowly look around the room to all the elders and the members of the council who were invited.

"You have no right to do this!" Naruto yelled pointing at all who were present.

A man cleared this throat in a smug and rude way, then spoke in his emotionless voice. "Respect your elders boy. We came to this decision for the protection of Konoha. For its citizens, for its ninja, for its future. A future without you." The smug smile formed on the face of Danzo.

A FEW DAYS BEFORE

Sakura and Naruto stroll down the of the newly constructed streets of Konoha. The attack by Pein left the Village Hidden in the Leaves completely in ruins. Not just the destruction of homes but the destruction of the people's hopes and stability. Yet there was one thing that held everyone together. Not a thing, but a person. One person.

Naruto.

Sakura glanced at Naruto out of the corner of her eye. His hands were behind his head making a make-shift head rest. His typical orange and black jacket was completely unzipped giving him a relaxed aura. Sakura could not help but smile. He had come so far in life, started off as the annoying little brat that everyone wanted to get rid of to someone who everyone needed in their lives. Especially her own. He was her pillar. That unmovable rock that no matter what was happening, she could rely on him. She could not imagine life without the Kyuubi vessel.

"What's up Sakura-chan?"

The question brought Sakura out from her musing to full out look at Naruto. His gaze at her was quizzical.

She was slightly embarrassed. "u-uh, n-n-nothing Naruto. "

He lightly chuckled. "You sure?" he teased.

She looked away from him, crossing her arms. "Humph. I'm sure."

He laughed out loud at her antics. He narrowed his eyes at the pink haired girl. "I was just playing Sakura-chan."

Sakura turned her head back around to stare right into those beautiful cerulean eyes of the blond boy walking next to her. Scratch that. Not a boy. A man. No boy can do the things he can.

"Well I hope you are done playing around because I am starving." Sakura stated leaving no room for negotiations.

"Me too. Ichiraku?" The blond asked with much hope.

Naruto's favorite stand reopened just a few days ago but was bigger because people figured out it was his favorite place to eat at. The poor old man and his daughter never got a break because they were always so busy. But they were ok with that, especially since it was all because of Naruto. They always had room for Naruto when he came around for his eight bowls of almost daily ramen.

As much as Sakura did not want to see Naruto devour many bowls of ramen at inhuman rates, she was so hungry she did not care. "Sure."

Naruto stopped in his tracks almost not believing in what he just heard. She wanted to get ramen? With him? This was a dream come true!

"But it not a date," the pink girl stated loudly so he could hear her.

Scratch that. It was still a dream yet to come true.

Feeling somewhat defeated Naruto stuck his hands in his pockets and continued forward to catch up with her, but with no real rush. As always he threw on the smile just for her sake.

They turned the corner to see the stand already full of people but there were only two spaces open. They sat down and Sakura ordered her usual while Naruto….inhaled all of his own. They just enjoyed each other's company. They noise around them ensured they were just in their own little world. Just the two of them. They laughed. Sakura play slapped him when he make a stupid joke or just plain annoyed her. But neither of them would trade this for anything. They finished their meals and paid for it. And headed along their way.

"So what do you want to do now Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto.

The pink haired girl crossed her arms and tapped her chin with a single finger. "Well I do need to shower first. But then I need to stop by the hospital and see how things are going with the expansions. And I need to stop by and see Tsunade-sensei to see how she is doing and give Shizune a break."

Naruto lowered his head. "I hope Granny gets better soon."

Tsunade still had to wake up from her coma from protecting everyone in the village. People were starting to doubt if she would ever recover.

"Me too." Sakura agreed. "Well, I have to get going see you around Naruto!"

Sakura ran off in the direction of the temporary living quarters for most of the village's ninja. Naruto waved after her giving her that big smile that he reserved for her alone.

"See ya Sakura-chan!"

Naruto returned his hands to his pockets and turned the other way. As he turned he glanced off the corner of his eye at a shadow out of place on top of a roof. He continued on his way like he did not see anything humming a sweet tune to himself. He wanted to train some more and to see what that misplaced shadow would do.

Returning to the training ground he was surprised to see his sensei leaning against a tree, but not surprising he was reading his favorite smut book.

Naruto ran over to him. "Hey Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi moved only his eye above his favorite book to see Naruto standing in front of him. "How are you doing Naruto?"

Using one hand he scratched the back of his head with a big smirk on his face. "Not too bad sensei. Wish things could be going a little better…"

With so many things going on and the rate Naruto had been going recently Kakashi was surprised to see that was doing as well he appeared to be. Almost too good. Like Naruto's whole aura was different. More calm. An air of almost complete peace and knowing.

Kakashi narrowed his eye at his students. Naruto could tell that Kakashi could see right through him and almost see he was hiding something. Naruto had not told Kakashi about meeting his dad, the Fourth Hokage. And, in extension, the fact that the seal is strong again like the day the jutsu was cast. Naruto did not want to have a conversation like that in the open. Not here at least. Maybe Kakashi was good enough to figure this out on his own….

"Hmm…is that so?" Ok maybe not. _I wonder what he is hiding…._

Naruto looked away at a seemly random tree in the distance. Kakashi glanced away to the same point, only to look back at his student. "Feel like a spar?"

Naruto's smile grew as he looked back at his sensei. "Sure!"

The cyclopes closed this smut novel, pushing himself off the tree and stowing it in his tool pouch. "I want to see how much you have grown since you left."

Naruto smile disappeared, getting serious, as he back flipped away from Kakashi to give them some space.

"Ready?"

"Go."

After an hour of intense fighting, Naruto found himself on a large branch high in the trees looking out for the copy ninja. A familiar hand sign was made, suddenly, eight more blonds appeared in smoke. Seven clones immediately vanished to find Kakashi while one disappeared to remain hidden. The original took a second to relax his thoughts and take a deep breath. Unfortunately, Kakashi had other ideas. Two clones were taken out together giving Naruto enough information to head out. Jumping from branch to branch, Naruto quietly made his way to where his clones were defeated to, obviously, find no sign of the copy ninja.

Staying out of sight, Naruto silently made his way around. Something was telling him Kakashi was nearby. But where? He stopped. Closed his eyes, sent out a mental thought to his hidden clone. A small ruffle to the left caught Naruto's attention. Kakashi appeared next to him with a fist cocked back ready to strike. Naruto waited. Kakashi thought he had Naruto taken by surprise until he was surprised when a fist stopped his attack. The eyes of the copy ninja widen, as he was the one taken by surprise. Using his non trapped hand to block Naruto's counter strike, Kakashi hoped to soften the blow. But, unfortunately, he was sorely mistaken as Naruto's strength seemed to surpass even Tsunade's heaviest punches.

Kakashi was sent flying through some trees to find Naruto in the air next to him, punching him a different way into a clearing. Then one final Naruto appeared above him and performed a double hand hit, slamming Kakashi into the ground. Before he could recover from out the crater was formed from his body a kunai was at his throat. He looked up to seem a smirking Naruto.

Kakashi closed his eyes, smiling in defeat. "You have definitely improved."

Naruto offered a hand up. Once Kakashi was up, he covered his sharingan, finally getting a good look at Naruto. His first observation was the change in Naruto's eyes and the orange rings around the eyes.

 _So, this is what he looks like in Sage mode…_ Thought Kakashi.

The blond grinned widely and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "You really think so Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi's eye smiled and he nodded in approval. As Kakashi opened his eye he saw Naruto looking off in the same direction he was before their fight began. Kakashi looked and tried to sense anyone out there. Nothing. Was Naruto seeing something even the jonin was not?

"Do you sense them sensei?" inquired Naruto without even looking back.

Kakashi tried again. Again nothing. "Nope." Taking a step toward where Naruto was looking, "What do your new senses tell you?" _Sage mode must be incredible if he can pick something up I can't._

Naruto pointed. "They are that way, five hundred meters. They are trying to hide their chakra, but they are not very good about hiding themselves." Suddenly Naruto's eyes widened.

"What is it?" asked Kakashi looking off the corner of his eye.

Naruto closed his eyes. The rings around the eyes faded away and opened his eyes to reveal his normal bright sapphire eyes. "They must have seen us pointing them out they quickly ran away." Naruto walked to beside Kakashi. "Should we chase them down?" Naruto had an almost playful look in his eye.

The older ninja shook his head chuckling slightly. "No. We don't know why they were here. Plus, it could be an admirer of yours." Kakashi loved to tease his students with anything he could.

Naruto sighed heavily. "Too many already," Naruto said in a mock pout voice.

The silvered haired ninja tilted his head slightly. "You mean there is only one special person you wish would be your biggest admirer." Too easy.

Kakashi knew of the love triangle in his now separated squad of young ninja. Again too easy to tease about.

Naruto looked down. Smile on his face gone. "Yea. But she is for Sasuke."

Kakashi walked up to the young blond and put his hand on his shoulder smiling under the mask. "Cheer up, she roots for you more than anyone else. I can see it."

Naruto's head perked up with a smile. "Thanks sensei."

"No problem. Let's go find Yamato and grab some grub. I'll buy." Yup, the jonin really knew how to talk to people. His tongue was as silver as his hair.

"Sure!"

Sakura sigh as he propped her tired feet up on a table in the nurse's break room. Ever since she left Naruto she did not stop moving. She was beyond exhausted. She closed her eyes. Every part of her body was screaming in pain, yet ironically at the same time was completely numb. Can't her body just make up its mind?

"What's up forehead?" Don't even need to look up to know who it was.

"Hey Ino. Did you finish your rounds?" Peeking one eye open to see her way too perky best girl friend sitting across the table from here with tea in each hand.

"Yeup. Heard you could use this." Ino handed her best friend on of the steamy teas.

Sakura thankfully accepted the tea and let the hot liquid run down her throat. The tea seemed to loosen up the muscles and relax her. Ino may not have all the best talents but Sakura was thankful for one thing, Ino could miracle teas.

"Has it really been that bad for you?" Ino ran her eyes up and down her pink haired friends frame seeing just how tired she was.

Sakura took another sip of tea then shook her head. "No, it is never this bad, even with the amount of wounded we still have. I made the mistake of training with Naruto before coming. He may not be the smartest guy but can he put up a fight and push you to your limits."

Ino leaned her head on her hand and looked at Sakura. "Yea he has come a long way from being that annoying brat he always was. I mean look at him! Hero of the village! It would not surprise me if they made him Hokage!"

A smile crept on Sakura's face as Ino spoke. "Yea there is nothing that can stop him now."

She looked at the Hokage monument that was out the window. She could almost imagine Naruto's face carved into the rock face.

On top of the Hokage monument, on The Fourth Hokage's head stood the very blond Sakura was thinking about. The sapphire eyes of the village hero gazed out on the reconstructing village. He could only imagine how grand the new and improved village will be when everything is done. Easily one of the greatest things the world will ever see. He took a deep breath. As he stood, both Kakashi and Yamato were behind him. Kakashi a few feet behind him, and Yamato leaning against the rock face.

Naruto had just finished telling them what happened during the fight with Pein. He told them how we went eight tailed state before the Fourth Hokage intervened and then they learned a darker and more terrifying secret. He withheld the fact the Fourth was his father.

Yamato was not happy. "So you're telling me that someone much more powerful than our Fourth Hokage was controlling the world's most feared organization and wants all of the tailed beast from some evil plan?"

Naruto turned around to face his two superiors. "Yea. And he is also manipulating Sasuke."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Naruto, did the Fourth Hokage tell you anything else?"

Naruto's fists tightened. Yamato perked up.

"Fathers usually have a lot they want to tell their sons." Kakashi was smiling under the mask.

Yamato's eyes were wide as saucers. The resemblance was undeniable.

Naruto looked up with the widest smile. "He said he was proud of me. That I could find the answer to peace."

Pushing off the wall and walked to beside Kakashi. "Y-y-you're the son of the Fourth Hokage?"

Naruto did not jump and scream like most would expect him too. He seemed to have a more of a calm air about him now. But still that playful and free spirit. "Yea. He left his dream to me. I will make it happen."

A couple of days later Naruto was walking down one of the streets towards Ichiraku. Yesterday all of the rookies got together and had some grub at one of the new barbeque places that were opened. It became their new hangout spot when everyone was home. Everyone had a great time. Naruto was enjoying himself but he could not shake the feeling of being watched. He had the same feeling right now.

Suddenly two ANBU appeared in front of him. "Uzumaki-san, you are to report to the council immediately. We are here to escort you."

Naruto should have known it was ANBU. He just nodded and started walking towards where the council was temporarily meeting until a more permanent structure was completed. What were ANBU doing here and why did he needed to escorted? He knew where to go. Something was not right.

They got to a large meeting room and the double doors opened up.

The entire council was here. Naruto stood before silently.

Koharu cleared his throat and spoke. "Naruto Uzumaki. Much has happened recently, most of which has revolved around you. Many regard you as some sort of hero. After much discussion the council has decided-"

"Don't you mean what you want." Shikaku interrupts with his eyes closed and arms crossed. He was obviously not happy.

Koharu continued as if never interrupted. "The council has decided that you have become too much of a danger to this village and should be put to death immediately."

Eyes wide open. Mouth agape. No other emotion then pure shock. He could not even move.

"W-what?"

Koharu leaned forward. "Did I stutter boy?"

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Naruto screamed taking a step forward, fists clutched so hard blood trickled down his fingers.

Homura shifted her hands to her lap. "The decision has been made."

Naruto slowly look around the room to all the elders and the members of the council who were invited.

"You have no right to do this!" Naruto yelled pointing at all who were present.

A man cleared this throat in a smug and rude way, then spoke in his emotionless voice. "Respect your elders boy. We came to this decision for the protection of Konoha. For its citizens, for its ninja, for its future. A future without you." The smug smile formed on the face of Danzo.

"What are you talking about? All that I have done has been for Konoha and it's protection!" shouted Naruto. "how can you do this? There is no Hokage!"

"We do have a Hokage." Said Homura. "Lord Danzo."

Danzo sat with a smug look on his face. "And it is the decision that you must be eliminated for the good of the village. Now, Naruto Uzumaki, will you come quietly and die a glorious death for the village or we will have to do this the hard way."

As if on cue ROOT ANBU burst in the door and began to surround Naruto.

During the whole thing Naruto was shaking, but now he had to calm himself. He closed his eyes thinking about what he should do.

He did not want to die. That much was obvious. There were so many things he still had not done yet. He could not die until he was Hokage. And he was not Hokage. Danzo is. It started to make sense now. Danzo must have had Naruto followed recently to keep tabs on him. The slimy snake. Vile creature. All Danzo craved was power. Now he had it.

So what could Naruto do? As much as he wanted to, Danzo was off limits. Attacking the Hokage even if he is a terrible person, comes with severe heavy consequences. Naruto has to get out. And fast.

Naruto heard Danzo. "So what's it going to be boy?"

Naruto opened his now frog like eyes in full Sage Mode. "I choose neither."

All of the ROOT agents attacked at once. Naruto decided to take one from Sakura's book. He cocked his hand back and with all of his strength and pouring as much frog kumite he could into it, he punched the ground. Wood, debris, and even people were blown away from the impact as part of the building was blown out.

Not even waiting for the dust to settle Naruto leaped as far as he could from the destruction. He could here Danzo order his men after him. Using the strength and speed granted to by his Sage Mode Naruto pushed himself to get away from his pursuers. He needed to leave. He had to leave.

He stopped on top of a random building and it all came crashing down of what that really meant. Should he ask for help for someone to go with him? No. too dangerous. He did not want his friends to be dragged down and hunted like him. Closing his eyes, the now on the run blond, took a deep breath to harden his resolve. There were a few things he needed to do before he left for good. Sensing the more ROOT ANBU behind him, Naruto took off for his little camp he made waiting for a place for him to live to be built. Bursting into the tent he threw all of his belongings into his pack and then strapped it to his back. Exiting the tent he had two things to do before his left. Taking two scrolls he wrote on both and signed them and took off to deliver them. He found where Kakashi stayed and threw it on the pillow. Finally made it to where he knew his favorite pink haired teammate stayed. How he longed to see her but he knew he couldn't. Gently he placed the scroll down on her belonging pile. Took a second to take it all in then sprinted out before anyone could see him, he still felt the agitated chakras of ROOT ANBU searching all around him.

A few minutes of running Naruto managed to make it to the top of Hokage monument. Silly ROOT agents, don't they know who they were chasing? Naruto Uzu….no, they were chasing Naruto Namikaze. The boy who ran from ANBU as a child. Of course they would not catch him… unless he allowed it.

Naruto looked out at the village below him. Everything has changed. Only days ago he was looking out over the village as its hero, a son of one of its great leaders, a bright future ahead of him, now, he was on the run.

Reaching up he, untied his forehead protector. Tracing the symbol with his figure he remembered how excited he was to get this. It was the same one as Iruka gave him. He was so proud to wear this. He still is but with the events of today, he had a funny feeling about it.

Narrowing his eyes he felt some of the ROOT agents finally closing in on his location. He needed to do this. He had to make sure people thought he was gone or he would never get a day's rest. This new way would take all of his strength and all of his humanity to make it through. But he was ready.

Hearing the ROOT behind him closing in he took a second to gather more Nature Energy.

"Naruto Uzumaki, you are under arrest come quietly."

Naruto chuckled to himself. "If you are looking for him you are looking in the wrong place."

Behind him some of the ROOT looked at each other not getting his meaning.

"Naruto Uzumaki-"

"Is dead," interrupted Naruto. Looking at his head band he took out one kunai, and in one fluid motion scratched a single line horizontally in the metal. Wasting no time he quickly tied the headband around he head. Slowly turning around he looked at the lead ROOT with an intense glare. "I am Naruto Namikaze."

All the ROOT agents hesitated for a second taken off guard by the announcement. But then, by order of the leader, they attacked Naruto at once. Dodging, ducking, blocking and simple side stepping, Naruto evaded all of his attacker's blows. Finally one of his attackers overstepped and lost his balance, Naruto took the opportunity to shove a Rasengan into the attacker's back blowing him off the cliff. Unfortunately, this left Naruto open so a ROOT agent had to opportunity to stab Naruto in the shoulder. Naruto hissed in pain, thanks to Sage mode he did not feel as much pain. He punched the ROOT in the chest, caving it in and throwing the body away. Grabbing his shoulder feeling the massive blood erupting from it, Naruto had an inspiration.

Root kept up their attacks. But now they were landing blows on the Sage. Nothing too severe, just enough to draw blood. It was all for the show. Finally Naruto had enough and using a quick Sage Mode enhanced Wind technique, the blew all the attackers away. Summoning two clones Naruto prepared his greatest attack. Soon a howling wind surrounded Naruto and fully formed Rasen-Shuriken. He looked around at all of the ROOT agents, feeling their fear.

"If you stay, you _will_ die." Naruto warned. Most of the ROOT took the advice and immediately started to flee, sensing the great danger. But a few unfortunate souls decided to stay or try and attacked.

Leaping high into the air, Naruto came hurling back to the ground throwing the Rasen-Shuriken right where he would land. The Rasen-Shuriken impacted the ground expanded and blew up, tearing apart all of the trees around and the ROOT agents who stayed. The shock wave blew off of the mountain and traveled over the village. Everyone in the village turned the attention to the explosion ripping apart the top of the monument.

The ninja hoped into action. Many ran to the explosion as it started to die down. Some knew exactly who it was.

Sakura was walking down the street with Ino when they were hit with the shockwave. Both turned to see the power of the Rasen-Shuriken.

The blood in Sakura's face drained, "Oh no."

Not a moment's hesitation was wasted when she took off in the direction of the wind based jutsu. Why was Naruto using that attack here? And against who? She was going to make that baka's head roll when she catches him. That jutsu was too dangerous to use. Especially, in the village. But who would attack Naruto in the village, except the Akatsuki? Either way she had to make sure Naruto was ok. Then shake him senseless.

Many ninja arrived before she got there. The devastation was obvious. A huge crater was in the ground with splintered trees and three dead bodies. She pushed through the crowd to get to the rim of the crater. Something orange caught her eye. She hoped into the crater without thought and sprinted to the middle, hoping she would not find her worst fears realized. Sliding to a stop at the bottom, her breath hitched. Laying in the middle was a torn up and bloody orange and black jacket.

Sakura fell to her knees. Tears streamed into her eyes. She shakily reached for the jacket. Her worst fear had come true. Naruto was gone. She checked the jacket hoping to find anything to show he was alive. But with so much blood she knew, medically, that was a lot of blood to lose.

Finally she broke. She cried out in agony. Her pillar was gone. She hugged the jacket to her as if it was the only thing keeping her alive. Shudders racked her body and the full force of emotions hit her of losing her best friend. Her teammate. Her sunshine. How could she live on? She needed him. All she could do now in cry out for him.

"NARUTOOOOOOOO!"


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N)

Hey everyone! so there are a few things of business I wish to address. First, thank you guys so much for reading the story! This is my very first fanfiction so I am still figuring out everything works and all that jazz. But I am having so much writing it. I will admit the first chapter is a tad rushed because i really wanted to get the story but I still think it turned out well. Second Please give me reviews! I love having feed back form those who read my stuff! It helps me build confidence. I love positivity. So if you do leave review, make it constructive criticism. Or I will just block you. If you don't like the story, guess freaking what, YOU DONT HAVE TO READ IT AND WASTE MY TIME WITH A CRAPPY REVIEW! OK? cool.

As for my reviewers

NarutoKushina: thank you so much for pointing that out. I will eventually fix it. I just want to get the next part of the story up. Honestly, I write most of this late at night and most of the time after I get home from a 10 plus hour day so sometimes I cant think straight.

anarion87 thank you for the compliment. Nice to hear people enjoy it.

And to the two guests. You dont have to wait long! he is the new chapter.

Moving along. I do not have a set schedule when I will be posting new chapters. Sometimes I get inspiration others...my brain is like yea no.

DISCLAIMER! I DONT OWN NARUTO! ITS KISHI'S! DO I have to always do one? I see it all the time when I read some but idk.

Again thank you for this who like the story, the reviewers, the followers, and everyone else in between. You are all amazing and never let anyone tell you different. ENJOY!

Everything seemed quiet over the Village Hidden in the leaves as the wind blew softly through the city. Strawberry hair moved seemly of its own accord, only to be tamed by a simple finger combing it behind an ear. Sakura Haruno leaned against the railing on her third floor apartment's extended patio. She was overlooking the new constructed Konoha. The construction was still not done but almost was complete. The occupants were sparing no expense in rebuilding their new home. The village had really sprung back from its dark times, just like what he would have done. The very thought of her teammate brought a smile to her beautiful face. Today was the anniversary.

Three years ago Naruto died.

FLASHBACCKK

 _"NARUTOOOOOOOO!"_

 _He returned. He always came back. In every single one of her darkest hours, in her scariest moments, he came back to push back the darkness. He couldn't be dead. He just could not. Naruto dead was as likely as Tsunade swearing off sake for the rest of her life. In other words, impossible. Yet here she was. Holding on to his jacket desperately. Ripped apart and bloody._

 _She continued to wail and cry until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Shikamaru standing above her. Taking one look into her emerald eyes Shikamaru instantly knew what had happened. Kneeling down, he guided her up to get out of the crater. He lead her out of the large crater and through the crowds of people who were whispering and pointing. But she was not paying attention to anything. She was lost. Completely devastated. Never again will she see him smile._

 _Some time later, Sakura did not know nor care, she was led into a house that belonged to non-other than Ino. Shikamaru sat Sakura down on the couch and went to fill Ino on everything he had found out. Sakura was in no state to give good information. But the look and the state the jacket was in left little room for what else could have happened._

 _Ino ran over to her best friend and cradled her. If at all possible she cried even harder, calling his name over and over. Ino was so scared and felt terrible for Sakura. She knew a little about how she was feeling. She had never seen Sakura this way, even after Sasuke left, but she still had Naruto. Now, there was no Naruto. Ino could offer no words to comfort her pink haired best friend. Eventually she cried herself to sleep still holding on to the bloody and ripped up jacket that once belonged to the most unpredictable ninja to ever live. Eventually, when she woke up again she found herself in a spare room of Ino's house. After crying some more she finally had some of a will to get up and grab some food. But first she needed a shower._

 _Finding her things in the corner she started going through her belongings when she saw something that she did not recognize._

 _A scroll._

 _This was not any old scroll. This scroll had Naruto's handwriting on it. She gasped and immediately ripped the scroll open._

 _Her eyes widened at what the scroll held._

Dear Sakura-chan,

The council, or few on the council, has made the decision to put me to death. I refused and am now on the run. Even now I feel the chakras of all the people looking for me. I am saddened to tell you that I am leaving Konoha. I don't know where I will be going. Maybe to stay with the toads for a while. Don't worry about me, keep yourself safe. Danzo is the new Hokage. Don't trust him.

I will bring home Sasuke for you. I will become Hokage. One day I will return. That is a promise.

There is something I have always meant to tell you. Since I don't know when I'll see you again I want to tell you. I love you Sakura-chan. I always have. I will miss you. Be safe.

I have to go.

Love,

Naruto

 _Silence was the only thing in the room. Only silent tears falling onto the scroll._

 _"You baka."_

 _She slightly smiled. He had tried to come see her before he left. He was thinking of her and only her. Again. For some reason, after reading that not, Sakura felt more at peace. She could not explain it. She felt like her world shattered, froze, and fell back into place. There is no way Naruto could be dead. He had to have escaped. Even with all the evidence staring her in the face, she went and put all her faith in Naruto. He would have never given up, neither would she._

 _Resolving herself, he prepared herself to be even greater and stronger than she was now._

 _"I miss you."_

END FLASKBACCKK

Three years had passed since then. Tsunade woke up from her coma, her title stripped from her. Only to find that Danzo of all people had been named Hokage. She, obviously was not very happy about that, especially because it was the old war hawk who had taken her place. She admitted many times, not so quietly, that she would be happy to find the brat, Naruto, had taken her place.

The village was almost completely rebuilt. Not just rebuilt but grew as well. Some of it was taking time because some of the population really wanted Konoha to a crown jewel of crown jewels. Most of it was. Many travelers from all over the world come to see the new and superior Village Hidden in the Leaves. Surprisingly Konoha became a great trade center. Surprisingly, because of who is at the helm for Konoha.

Danzo.

It became harder to be a ninja or become a ninja under Danzo. He was ruthless. He was nice when he needed to play nice. But it was all for his own benefit. So when Danzo really went out of his way to grow Konoha, something was up. But no one could figure out what it was. Plus, it's not as if you can just go around and accuse the Hokage of something just because he was playing nice. That would not end up well. But Danzo liked operating in the shadows. It was very hard to pin anything on him because of all the secrecy.

Danzo was not the only threat. The Akatsuki was still at large and still dangerous. Although for that past two years they have been getting more and more quieter. There have been many skirmishes been Konoha nin and the Akatsuki. Many reports from spies and different nations were all conflicting. Some said that Akatsuki had dispersed; some said they were all dead, some were saying they were just lying low and bidding their time. Some nations have claimed to kill a few members but could not give any proof. Konoha got close to killing Itachi and Kisame once. But Konoha lost more than a few good ninja that day. But why would the Akatsuki stop their operations? They are the most powerful individuals in the world next to the Kages, what are they afraid of?

There was one theory out there that made sense to most people. Words of Naruto's death had made it out of the village and the world knew that the Nine Tail Fox was gone along with its jinchuuriki. So according to some spies left over from The Toad Sannin said that the Akatsuki's plans were completely ruined now that the Nine Tailed Fox was gone. So what was their next step? No one knows.

Sighing, Sakura stood up and walked back inside to shower and change to get ready for the day. She had a short shift today at the hospital. Tsunade took over running the hospital after it got rebuilt. She also, with some persuasion, had a medical school wing attached to the hospital. Her master was a genius. With her work, at least one and sometimes two member of every squad had decent medical training. The results were spectacular. The rates of casualties plummeted. This was great, but there was one problem. Guess who Tsunade selected to train all those people. That's right, the pink haired medical prodigy herself. Sakura.

She enjoyed the work, it was rewarding, it was just annoying most times because of how difficult it was. It was just because Tsunade didn't want to do it. The lazy Sannin. All she wants to do is drink sake. Sometimes Sakura feels like she needs on too.

Locking her door, she started making her way to work. Part way there she ran into Ino.

"Hey Ino."

"Hey Sakura."

Sakura gave Ino a look over. "Have you been sleeping well?"

Ino's shoulders slumped. "No!" Throwing her hands up.

"Why not?"

The blonde gave a mean look to the pink haired girl next to her. "If I would know that then I wouldn't be sleeping horribly!"

"Sheesh Pig, I was just asking!" Sakura crossed her arms.

"So Sakura, how are things going with you?"

"Oh you know, always busy. But I am so looking forward to an afternoon off." It had been a few months since she really had some time off.

"Hey we should go out!" exclaimed Ino grabbing Sakura's arm.

Sakura groaned. "Why?"

Ino draped her arm over Sakura's shoulders. "Because Forehead, we need to find you a good man and have a good time!"

Groaning again Sakura shook her head. "I don't need a man Ino!"

Ino poked her friend in the shoulder. "Yes you do! Do you want to be a prude all your life? or are you still waiting for Sasuke-kun?"

"No to both Ino." Responded Sakura annoyed.

"Well then let's go out!"

Sakura's eyebrow twitched annoyingly. "Fine."

They both arrived at the hospital and checked in with Tsunade. "Are you ladies ready for-"

A nurse burst into Tsunade's office. "Ma'am we have a situation! One of our recon squads was attacked! Critical injuries!" Tsunade nodded to the two girls. They knew what to do. The quad of ladies rushed to the four new patients being moved into the surgery room by other nurses and ninja. Finally after hours of surgery all four are stable.

"Good job ladies", Tsunade praised. "Especially you Sakura."

The pinkette bowed to her master. "Thank you My Lady. I'm just doing my job."

"Not just doing, surpassing." Tsunade pointed out. "Very, very soon even surpassing me."

Sakura was astonished by Tsunade's words. Sakura was working herself hard but never thought she would one day surpass her master.

Tsunade turned to one of the other nurses. "I want to know the moment they wake up."

"Yes ma'am."

A few hours later after doing her own work Sakura was checking up on the recon squad when one of them woke up.

Looking over at another nurse, "Inform lady Tsunade I have one that is awake."

Sakura quickly checked all his vitals, temperature, and gave him a sedative to calm him down. "What's your name?"

"Koki." The spiked, brown haired recon ninja said.

"What happened to you?" asked Tsunade came up from behind Sakura coming into the conversation like she was already here.

"We were ambushed." Koki coughed a bit before continuing. "I don't think we were the targets we just happened to cross them."

"Who attacked you?" Sakura asked.

"The Akatsuki." There was an audible gasp from most that were in the room.

Everyone was in shock. "H-h-how did you all make it out alive?" Sakura blurted out.

Koki went silent for a few seconds, like he was remembering something. "We were saved."

"Who saved you? Other Konoha ninja?"

"No."

Everyone in the room were looking at one another. All were thinking one thing. "Who?" voiced Sakura.

The recon ninja was silent for a minute as if he was trying to remember.

"I don't know."

Well, that was a disappointment.

"But whoever they were…." Koki paused briefly. "They saved our lives and had the Akatsuki on the run."

This statement had both Tsunade and Sakura wide eyed and looking at each other, having similar thoughts. Who was powerful enough to have the most feared ninja in the world on the run? And just how powerful were they? More importantly. Who were they?

Tsunade recovered from the shock first. "Can you tell us what they looked like? Do you remember anything about them? Abilities, jutsus, physical descriptions. Anything."

Koki shifted his position a bit to get more comfortable only to his in pain from his four broken ribs. "The group we encountered, they attacked the Akatsuki when they were going to finish us off. It was hard to see because they moved so fast. They beat back the Akatsuki like they had fought many times before. It was hard to tell what kind of jutsus they were using because I passed out before I could see any really used."

"You did good", assured Tsunade with a smile and a light pat on the shoulder.

Sakura came forward this time. "Did they have any marks, anything to identify who they are or where they came from?"

Drawing another breath the recon continued. "There were only four that we saw. I did not get a good look enough at them to tell. But they all wore long white coats with hoods. I think there may have been designs on them but again I passed out before I could get a good look at them. I doubt anyone else saw them."

Tsunade smiled and told a nurse to get him more pain medications. She then turned to Sakura. "As much as may not like doing this, We have to go tell Danzo of what we learned."

Sakura nodded. "Do I have to come along sensei?"

Tsunade sighed. "Yes, you heard it was well and you could maybe fill in the gaps I leave out."

"Yes, ma'am."

That was a load of crap. Sakura knew that Tsunade wanted her to come along just so she did not have to go to Danzo alone. Plus, it was no secret really that Danzo despised Sakura along with Tsunade. It was most likely because of Sakura's once close proximity to Naruto and her being basically a Tsunade. Plus, you should fear a woman who could punch you straight across the village without ever touching the ground. Except, there were two.

The duo made their way to the Hokage tower. Danzo had it improved to be larger and more elaborate then the last Hokage tower. He was such a narcissist.

After making their way through multiple of Danzo's little ROOT ANBU searches and checkpoints they reached the double doors of the Hokage office. The two ANBU opened the doors for them into the large office.

It was unnecessarily large. With a oversized, over weight, ornate dark wood desk in front of the rounded windows. To the left was a table for maybe eight people to have a meeting. To the right were a few couches and a coffee table for relaxing or meetings. And at a few places were bookshelves and filing cabinets filled with whatever the Danzo wanted. The high back chair's back faced the two women. But it was easy to guess who was being blocked from their view. Both the blonde's and the pink's most hated person.

They stopped in front of the desk. The chair slowly turned to reveal the bandaged covered man with the smuggest look on his face. Sakura had to use every ounce of her self-control from not chakra-enhanced slapping that look off the elder's face. And oh how she wanted to.

"Princess Tsunade..." Tsunade's hatred of the name could never be put into words. "And her apprentice. What an unexpected surprise."

"Oh stop it Danzo," The busty blonde growled, "you knew we were coming."

Continuing the conversation like no one was taking stabs at him, "So what do I owe the pleasure of this visit for?"

Tsunade got serious very quickly, something she picked up from being Hokage. "I assume you got the report of one of our recon teams being attacked and taken to the hospital?"

"Yes, I have it right here," said Danzo motioning to one of the files on his desk. "How is their recovering coming?"

"All patients admitted had critical injuries but are now stabilized. All will live."

Danzo almost seemed annoyed. "You had to come all the way to see me to tell me that and not in a report?"

Tsunade scoffed. "If I had the choice Danzo, I would never want to see you again. But beside that point, one of the recon units woke up and was able to tell us what happened."

Danzo sat silently waiting for her to continue. The blonde sighed. "They were attacked by the Akatsuki."

Danzo's expression did not change at all. That perturbed Sakura a little bit.

"But that is not the shocking part and the reason why we are here. The recon unit told us that some group came and actually went toe to toe with the Akatsuki, and pushed them back."

"Is this so.."

Tsunade almost started shouting. "That's all you can say? A group of people who are stronger than them? We need to find out who they are and make them allies!"

Danzo calmly raised his hand and snapped his fingers. An ANBU appeared next to him handing him a file and then disappearing again. Danzo held out the file to Tsunade. She regarded Danzo for a second thinking that maybe this was some dream or trick but took the file. Danzo stood up and walked to the window and look out over the village as Tsunade flipped open the file.

"What you are looking at is the only copy of our intelligence gathering of a brand new group that we have recently heard of. Information is limited. I have sent many squads to go out seek information, even using many spies to turn up who they are, where they are from, or any information about them. We have turned up some but even what we have may not be true. "

Danzo turned back around and sat down in the chair and continued. "From what we gather, the group was formed roughly three ago. They have at least six members, possibly more. Their ultimate goal is still unknown. Apparently, their members are all very powerful and are very good at keeping their identities secret. Even going off recent sightings and using tracking techniques, they seem to vanish. They have accepted missions both large scale and in small villages, with an almost perfect completion rating. But they do not accept all their missions even with a large purse waiting for them. The people who do meet them cannot recall much about them. Their only real way of identifying who they are is that all the members wear white trench coats with blue accents on them. Even then people have rarely seen their faces because they keep their hoods on all the time.

"Their only real enemy it seems is the Akatsuki. Why they have targeted the Akatsuki I would much like to find out why."

Both Tsunade and Sakura were stunned by all this. "How long have you know all this Danzo?" asked Tsunade, not caring to hide her impatience with the man for withholding such information.

"Calm down Princess Tsunade." That damn name again. "I have only known for about six months."

The blonde sighed and pinched her nose. "Have you tried getting message to them?"

"Of course."

"What did the message say? That you would like to have a meeting? They don't seem to be that stupid Danzo." Tsunade was glad to get at some a little jab at the old war hawk.

"Watch your words Tsunade," warned the current Hokage.

"Have you tried giving them a mission?" Sakura finally interjected.

Both Danzo and Tsunade gave Sakura quizzical looks. "Explain."

Sakura controlled her heart rate and took a deep breath and explained. "Well they seem to only go where can get some missions. Mission opportunities are everywhere if you know where to look so they do not need a village to give them any missions. Plus they may accept low pay to avoid too much suspicion. Plus, it would not hurt. Maybe we can actually see who they really are, plus maybe make some good allies."

Danzo narrowed his eye at Sakura. "Tsunade I think she may have surpassed you."

Tsunade did not care if that was supposed to be an insult or not. "I would expect nothing less form you Sakura."

Sakura blushed form the attention she was getting. "T-thank you."

Danzo cleared his throat. "I will be having a meeting with the jonin later today so they can tell their squads to be on the lookout for this new group. In the mean time I will see if a can get a message out to them for a mission. Dismissed."

The two ladies walked out of the office without another word and did not speak until they were far enough away from the building to not be heard.

"If that group is smart they would stay far away from this place," Tsunade said.

Sakura nodded. "Let's hope they are."

xxxxxx

Four figures were walking down trail through a heavily forested area where the light from the sun only broke through the canopy every so often. Their white cloaks hiding all their features expect their feet only opening when a light breeze broke through the trees.

"How do you think Kisame is feeling about now?" A woman's voice asked the group at large.

Most of the other remained quiet especially the figure at the rear of the group.

"If he does not feel anything now, he certainly will be feeling it later. I lost track of how many times you landed hits on him."

The figure at the front huffed in agitation. "Yea, I should have hit him harder though. He still is alive. And he still got away!"

"Well he is the tailless tailed beast for a reason."

"Well tailed are still better than tailless any day of the week," the front figure huffed back.

Silence only remained over the group for a few more seconds before the back figure broke it. "What is the new plan?"

"New? Ha! There is no new plan! It is the same as it always was. Gather intel, fight those Akatsuki scum, and turn the world in the direction of peace."

The other figure interjected before the last could respond. "As fun as they sounds, that is still idealistic, I think what he is asking is what specifically are we going to go about it. We cannot just fight the Akatsuki, all of us know that there is more corruption in the world than just them. They just happen to be at the forefront about it. Then maybe, Kumogakure and Konohagakure. And most likely Iwagakure. But we all know how corrupted Konoha is. Or just its leader. "

The first figure flinched a tad at the first mention of Konohagakure. He knew how corrupted they had become because of its current leader. "Yea I know."

Suddenly there was a puff of smoke on the ground. A small animal appeared in the middle of the road before the group with a scroll in its mouth. The leader knelt down and took the scroll from the animal. "Thank you." The animal saluted and puffed away.

Opening the scroll the figure read the scroll, then started shaking with anticipation.

"What is it?"

The figure smiled. He was just given the most perfect opportunity. Thank Kami.

"I think we have a way of able to gather more intelligence on Konoha and make some money in the process." He tossed the scroll to one of his associates.

They read it and gasped. "You can't be serious! You know this is a trap! It was that written all over it!"

The last figure read the scroll. "I have to agree this is from Danzo himself. He cannot be trusted."

The leader's smile grew even bigger. Finally he reached up with both hands and slowly took off his hood revealing long, messy golden locks. He turned to his comrades showing his brilliant sapphire eyes and whiskered graced cheeks, a grin graced his face.

"I know, but now we make a move on him."

"But Naruto-kun, how can we do that?"

The grin grew into a smile they all knew. Naruto had a plan, and one he was going to have a lot of fun with.

"We exploit his weakness."


	3. Chapter 3

(A/N): HELLO EVERYONE!Guess who is back with a brand new chapter? That's right! This guy!

Few orders of business first. thank you guys so much for the follows and the likes and the comments! they warm my heart with all the feeling of warmness and fuzziness! It really gives me the support to keep going.

I am really excited for you to read this new chapter! Many of you may be wondering who is on Naruto's new squad. I'm curious to find out myself. hahahhahah! MUHAHAHAHAHAH! ok craziness over.

Just to inform all of you I post things as soon as I am done with them. I'm excited and anxious to get this story out as best and fast as I can so you may enjoy them. I write as much as I can whenever I can. I work long hours sometimes so I write portions of this when half drowsy so if there are some parts that may not make sense. that is because i was just...not there lol.

ok enough rambling from me. ENJOY THE NEXT CHAPTER! Tell your friends about the story.

love you all. Have an amazing week. :)

All was quiet in the dense forest on the edge of the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers except for barely heard noises of a squad of ninja bounding off the high tree branches making their way back to Konoha. Leading the pack was a long, pink haired ninja wearing a red top.

Sakura Haruno, Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, Neji Hyuga, and TenTen were returning from a reconnaissance and treaty security mission in the Land of Rivers. Short back story to this was one of the land's lords paid Konoha for a mission and wanted a treaty, got the mission completed, but never signed the treaty. The unspoken agreement between all five ninja was that this was Danzo just flexing his muscle and bullying the people into paying. The man was such a narcissist. Always wanted to "show the strength of Konoha to the world". What a load of crap. Danzo's influence and power was spreading across the land like the wind. He used his position to bully and to force people to do what he wants, more for his benefit than Konoha's. There had been whispers of sever crimes done in Danzo's name but no evidence was ever really found. Rumors are just that, rumors. But all rumors start somewhere.

Only being less than a half day's journey left back to Konoha the group was in no rush to get home. Most of them enjoyed being out of the village. Especially one lazy Nara. Not to escape work but to get away from Danzo, unfortunately they all would have to return. The group was making their own route through the forest, staying off the main roads.

Out of the blue Sakura saw something up ahead. She landed on a large branch and held up her fist in the air to tell the rest to halt their motions. The rest of the group landed on other branches and Shikamaru made his way forward to Sakura's side.

"What is it?" whispered the Nara.

Sakura's green eyes scanned the forest floor beneath them. Movement to her right caught her eye. She pointed in that direction and Shikamaru's gaze followed. Through the trees they saw a group of three figures, covered in a white cloak with a hood.

Both their eyes widened when they saw the figures. After Danzo revealed what he knew to Tsunade and Sakura he did exactly what he said he would and talked to all the jonin, with the specific order if they were to encounter any of those from the organization, they were to follow and obtain as much information as they could. Do not engage. Except if they were with ROOT ANBU, in other words Danzo held his own men in higher regard and actually trusted them unlike the rest of the ninja.

But being the good ninja they were, they had to follow orders. So intelligence gathering they had to do. Shikamaru looked behind him to the rest of the group and silently gave hand signals for everyone to spread out and silently follow the group. They all launched off in different direction keep the trees between them and their targets that were moving slowly north towards Konoha.

Sakura creped her way to where she was almost directly above the white figures wanting to hear what they were talking about.

"…I hope he knows what he is doing" voiced a female figure.

Another figure that was about half a head shorter than the one who was talking interjected, He sounded like a teenager. "I trust him no matter what. He has never failed us."

The female sighed. "Yes, I know how much you like him."

"B-but not as much as you!" the shorter one quickly returned.

The taller one, wrapped the other in a one armed hug full of love. Sakura's eyebrow rose up in confusion. This was the group they feared? Wow.

The figure leading the group suddenly held up their hand the other two stopped. "We have company", an outspoken voice said. The figure turned around and seemed to look directly at Sakura. "You can out down now. I know you and the four others are here."

Sakura mentally cursed. Did he hear them? No. Maybe he was a sensor type ninja? But they were all great at masking their chakra.

"I'm waiting." Said the figure.

Sakura's eyebrow now twitched form annoyance. Who was this guy?

Finally Sakura hopped down but stayed at the ready just in case they attacked. She at the figures as the rest of the teamed joined her behind her. Now they all got a good look at the people they were told to follow. The most obvious thing about them was the infamous white coats with hoods to hide their faces. But they now saw that the white coats had blue accents to them. On the shoulders were three stripes, there were flames along the bottom of the coats and around the end of the short sleeves, and on the back of the coats were the kanji for "rebirth". The coats were strikingly similar to those the Fourth Hokage wore.

"How did you know we were there?" Sakura asked the group.

"I felt your chakra for a while, just waited until you got closer." He had to be a sensor type.

The only female of the group seemed to look the group over. "They're Konoha Nin," she pointed out.

The leader of the group nodded so slightly. The youngest one spoke. "Oh are we supposed to fight them?" seemingly almost oblivious. "Or are they the people we are not supposed to attack… I forget."

The group of Konoha ninja all basically sweat dropped.

 _What is with this kid?_ Sakura thought. But the rest of the group was readying for an attack.

A chuck came from the female. "Not unless they attack us for no reason, and we are to subdue them without much injury and without killing them."

The Konoha ninja now got into position of defense to counter anything the mysterious group threw at them. Sakura was more annoyed about what the woman said. How could she already know she could beat them all when she has never fought them before? She was either really powerful or just mentally insane.

The leader stepped forward with one hand raised. "Stop."

The Konoha ninja all looked at the figure was a confused expression.

"There is no need for that," he once again spoke in an outspoken voice. "We are not here to start a fight."

Shikamaru growled. "Seems like you are."

The leader lowered his hand back to his side and then bowed to them. "Please forgive her. She can be…rash sometimes."

"Hey!"

He paid no attention to her and continued, "Why were you trying to follow us?"

"Trying?" blurted out TenTen.

The hooded man nodded. "Yes, trying."

"WHY YOU!" TenTen ripped out a large shuriken and almost threw it but Neji appeared beside her and stopped her.

"Stop, we don't know anything about them, we cannot attack. Remember our orders."

TenTen growled at him and put the large weapon away.

"You hear that?" said the female chuckled. "They must be trying to get information about us."

The leader nodded. "Just like he said they would."

Sakura caught this. "Who said?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," spat the younger one and did a motion that Sakura assumed he was sticking his tongue out at them.

The female pulled him back to her to chastise him. "Don't act so immature!"

"Like who said?" asked Sakura again.

The mysterious woman glanced at the leader eefor a second before looking back at the Leaf ninja. "I cannot reveal who they are. But they are a member of our organization originally from Konoha."

All the Leaf ninja's eyes widened in disbelief. Someone from the Leaf village was in this mysterious and supposedly powerful organization.

 _Who could it be?_ was the general question going through the ninja's minds. The only ninja who was from the Leaf village and in an organization outside of the village was Itachi Uchiha and he was a part of the Akatsuki. So who could it be?

"Do not try to guess who it may be. You will never figure it out."

Shikamaru took a step forward. "Maybe we could just capture you and force you to tell us."

The leader gazed at Shikamaru for a moment. "That is quite rash for a Nara." Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. "We both know you only want to get information from us. So attacking us is your last option. But you think on the side of the numbers game. You have five while we only have three. However you do not know of our abilities and strengths, so attacking the unknown is not a good move. Finally disobeying Danzo's orders comes with severe consequences."

Shikamaru did not show it but he was surprised at how accurate and close the mysterious leader's outspoken thoughts were to his own. All good points, and all fact.

"How about we continue along both of our ways and pretend this meeting never happened?" Proposed the leader.

Sakura needed to follow orders. So they were at a cross roads. What should they do?

"There is no need to worry. You will not be able to catch us." Said the male.

"Say 'hey' to that scumbag Danzo for us!" spoke the female, giving the group a two finger salute.

Suddenly all three white cloaked members burst into flames and vanished. The Leaf ninja looked all over for them only find nothing.

"Either they were never there, or that was genjutsu." Stated Shikamaru.

"I scanned him and there was no chakra being used," added Neji.

Sakura sighed. "Either way we have to tell Danzo about this. Let's get going.

All the Leaf ninja took off into the trees. After a few seconds three white hooded figures stepped out from behind the trees.

"That was close," breathed out the female. She lowered her hood to let her light blue hair out to breathe. Her dark eyes narrowed at the teenager. "You almost gave us away!"

The teenager also took off his hood to show his magenta eyes and pale green hair. "I'm sorry. I don't like it when they talk about Naruto that way."

Guren smiled at the boy. "It's ok, Yukimaru."

"We have company," stated the third figure. "Friendly."

Guren relaxed after hearing at was another of their organization.

The figure stepped out behind the tree. "How did it go?" asked the newcomer more so to the third person than anyone else.

"It went perfectly."

"So they know Naruto-kun is from the Leaf?"

"They are going straight to Danzo."

"Excellent. Naruto-kun asks if you can head to the assigned rendezvous."

Guren turned shocked to this. "He is actually going to go? How many times have we told him it is a trap?" She turned to the older male of the group. "Can you convince him? He listens to you the most!"

The new comer chuckled. "I would not worry about Naruto-kun. He has a plan."

Suddenly the newcomer slowly started to peel and then started blowing into thousands of tiny papers disappearing into the wind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The team returned to village around sunset, signed in and headed to the Hokage mansion to give their report.

After getting checked they were led into the large office of Danzo. He barely acknowledged them as they entered. He was discussing something with an ANBU over a document in a scroll. The new arrivals gathered in front of the desk in a single line for Danzo to see all. The conversation between Danzo and the ANBU ended with Danzo nodding and the ANBU poofing away.

Danzo turned to the newly arrived squad. "Report."

Sakura sighed. This was going to be a long evening. Sakura gave the Hokage everything that involved to original mission. Then came the part they were all dreading to tell him.

"Is that all?" asked Danzo.

Sakura slightly shook her head. "No sir."

This slightly intrigued the war hawk.

"We ran into them."

His one eye opened slightly. "Tell me everything."

Sakura looked to Shikamaru. He nodded and he took away telling of what happened since Sakura did all the original talking. Danzo listened very closely to all of what the shadow user was saying.

"…then they must have performed an advanced genjutsu on all of us because they completely disappeared. We canvassed the area only to find no trace was left."

Danzo turned his chair around for a moment to think. After about thirty seconds he turned back around. "You provided us with more than enough information for such little time you actually spent chasing them."

Everyone though he was praising them. Wrong. "That is an utter disgrace!"

The squad got confused. Danzo was pissed.

"You should have stayed longer and looked harder for more evidence to follow them!" He stood up. "They were right in front of you and you let them get away!"

"B-but Lord Hokage! We were following orders not to attack! Your orders!" retorted the Nara.

Danzo turned his fury on him. "Do not tell me what my orders were! I gave them! I am fully aware with what I said. You all should have put more effort into it. As such I will withhold any pay for a month and you are suspended from going on any missions during this time. Dismissed."

Every single one of them wanted to speak up and say something, but long ago they learned to not speak up against Danzo. A jonin once did that. After his punishment, severe punishment, no one ever retorted Danzo back.

The ninja filed out of the office, every single one of the in bad moods. They all said their goodbyes and headed to their respective homes.

Sakura unlocked the door to her apartment, walked in and threw herself on her bed. The mission itself was not that difficult but having to deal with Danzo. That was always draining. After laying there in her thoughts for some time she got up and stripped down and climbed into her shower to wash all the dirt off. She would have to cut back on going out by a lot for some time. That withhold of pay was going to hit her hard. With the rise of the new Konoha so did the expenses of living there. But she did get paid more thanks to her missions and her job at the hospital. Missions got better pay than the hospital, but looks like she will have plenty of time to play nurse.

She thought back to the mission. They were the first official team, she thought official because Danzo's little pets were loyal to him not to Konoha, to run into the new and mysterious organization. They didn't necessarily get into fight with them but how could they so easily fool some of the best ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village? So many questions and yet no answers. It had been a few weeks since the meeting with Danzo about the organization. They have heard nothing. No response.

It was something about the way they were talking about 'him' that captivated Sakura. Whoever 'him' was. They talked about him like they were best friends, yet held him in the highest of regards. That reminded her of him. Naruto.

She missed him. So dearly.

Having Ino was great but it was nothing compared to her teammate. She need to hear his laugh, needed him to make her laugh. She wanted to see those crystal clear blue eyes and that wide cheesy grin that was only for her. She missed her best friend and would give anything to see him again. She remembered the scroll he left for her. She kept it safe and told no one about it, reading it so many times she memorized it. Whenever the pink haired ninja felt down, she read it again. It always made her day better but always made her miss him more. Never in a million years would Sakura Haruno, the girl who always pined over the Uchiha prodigy, think she would actually miss Naruto Uzumaki. She would never admit that to anyone.

Finishing her shower she fell on to her bed and almost passed out immediately. The new day came way too quickly for Sakura's tastes. Getting dressed in a long sleeved civilian cloths version of her ninja gear, she grabbed some money she kept in her apartment and went to out to get some food from the store. Her food storage was not replenished before she left on that mission, and the pink hair girl was hungry, angry, and needed food.

Xxxxxxxxx

Izumo and Kotetsu along with two of ROOT ANBU were standing guard at the opened entrance of the Village Hidden in the Leaves checking in everyone who came and left through the doors. It was tedious work, all because Danzo was paranoid about anyone who walked into Konoha. He wanted to stick his nose in everything to know everything that was going on. Especially if he could use that information against you to get what he wanted. The two guards hated Danzo. But he is the Hokage so they have to follow his orders.

Today just seemed like an ordinary day. Lots of merchants, business people, and visitors travel through here every single day. Kotetsu yawned really loud. Taking a look out, he noticed something odd.

A figure wear a white coat with a hood was approaching the gate. "You, halt!"

The figure stopped about twenty feet away. Izumo ran up beside Kotetsu. "State your name and your business here!"

The hooded figure remained quiet. Kotetsu drew a kunai. Suddenly six ANBU appeared with swords drawn and surrounded the figure. One of the ANBU spoke. "State your business!"

The hood figure said nothing and instead tossed something that skidded to a stop in front of Izumo and Kotetsu. The two looked down to find a Leaf Village headband on a long black cloth. But the thing that shocked both the guards was that there was a single horizontal scratch mark through the symbol. Izumo picked up the headband.

"That is my business." Spoke the figure at last.

Kotetsu spoke out orders. "Take him to the Hokage!"

The ANBU closed in on the figure. "Do not resist or fight, and we will get you there without incident."

The lone figure nodded and followed one of the ANBU who was leading the way. The rest of the ANBU surrounded him with swords in hand but not pointed at him, leading him into the village.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The pink hair medical ninja had just finished making all her purchases and was making her way home. Mentally she was giving herself a pat on the back. Not only did she get more than she needed, but also did not spend all of the money she had. Today was going to a great day for Sakura Haruno.

Making her way back to her apartment she saw a startling sight. She ran forward to get a better look. People up and down the street were pointing and whispering at a white hooded figure surrounded by ANBU. This was not a sight they saw every day.

Sakura gasped when she recognized the cloak. White with blue accents and flames. It was that mysterious group. So they finally showed themselves. Sakura turned and hurried home. She had to go tell Tsunade.


	4. Chapter 4

HEY EVERYBODY! Sorry it took so long for me to put this up. I meant to post it earlier but i had most of the chapter written when my computer committed suicide, so i had to wait to get a new computer and start all over. Hopefully I can recover the original copy and put it up some day!

Once again thank you all so much for the likes and the follows! It mean a lot to me. Plus this story has been put into 2 communities! Is that good? I have no idea, someone let me know. Tell your friends about the story! I love you all. And remember, you are worth more than all the gold and the riches in the world, you are priceless. Mental hugs for you all! so without further ado...ENJOY!

p.s. you meet a new member of the organization today muahahaha. it may or may not surprise you.

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Sitting in a high back chair, Danzo was overlooking the village. His village. That felt so good to say. For many, many years Danzo was skipped over by three other measly and weak excuses for a Hokage. After many years of careful planning and execution he finally captured his rightful spot. After the attack by Pein, the Fire Lord held a meeting with the elders of the village, where Danzo using his superior logic and reasoning skills, and a little help from the eye if Shisui Uchiha's eye, "convinced" the Fire Lord to make Danzo Hokage. Now, years later, the village is rebuilt, even among the Five Great Nations, Danzo was a head above the rest. His Village had grown to an immense size and now is a center of trade.

How did Danzo do all this? Not by just power. Knowledge. Knowledge is power. And he wanted to know everything. He likes being in control. For knowledge can grant you amazing power over people. Then with a little… persuasion they can be made to do anything you wish them to. Danzo smirked at the thought of how many people he could make do anything at the drop of his hat.

But then there is this new group. This new mysterious new group. Danzo was annoyed. No, irate. He knows barely anything about them. He had lied to Tsunade. Most of the report was true, but the part about how long they were gaining information about the group was false. Danzo had been trying to follow them for two years.

Two years!

That is despicable and embarrassing for Danzo. He, The Shinobi of Darkness, the ruler of the unseen, the master of black operations, could not find anything on this new player in the game. It was obvious they were trying to eliminate the Akatsuki. This was evidence enough when ANBU found the aftermath of battles that reflected the abilities of the Akatsuki, but at the same time left little evidence of this new group's abilities. Once Danzo was tipped off by a spy in his network so he send three of his best ROOT teams to find, investigate, and report about the rogue organization.

Not one agent ever returned.

Danzo was beyond pissed. Not even one report was received from them. Danzo did not want to risk more of his own men to find the group. To complicate his matters even more he could not get the normal ninja involved because of the sensitive nature and he did not want to reveal his own shame. Plus, Danzo did not tell the council about any of this except for Tsunade, but he wanted to keep them in the dark anyways. In his own mind, he thought the council was a big waste of time when he could get a lot more done faster because he would make all the decisions. Danzo needed more information on the group. Danzo did send out a message to the group to see if they would respond. After a long time waiting still nothing was heard from them. Then, out of nowhere, as was told by some of his ROOT agents, one of its member just shows up ate his village gates, unannounced with a missing Konoha ninja's forehead protector. Now ANBU members are escorting the new visitor here.

But Danzo and a smug smile on his face. He was going to get information. One way, or another.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Most people would be terrified in this situation. A lone foreign ninja, in the middle of an enemy village, surrounded by elite ANBU, then surrounded by an army of regular ninja, some of the most powerful jonin, Danzo's ROOT, and the Hokage himself. In fact, most would have pissed their pants already.

But he was chuckling underneath his hood.

A small smirk graced the hidden face of the mysterious figure. He was begin lead down the hall the led to the office of the Hokage. For three years he had dreamed of storming down this hallway to take out the Hokage. However both experience, and the voice of reasoning from many different people kept him from doing such a thing.

The ANBU parted at the double doors as two others opened both doors leading him into the office. ANBU were standing near the windows. As he approached, he finally laid his sapphire eyes on Danzo. He was sitting in a high backed chair with two of his personal ANBU standing just behind him.

The lone figure stopped about ten feet from Danzo and just remained silent.

Danzo considered the individual in front of him. Did not seem to be too much of a threat.

"Welcome to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, my name i-"

"-I know who you are," interrupted the figure evenly. The ANBU in the room tensed a little, clearly not liking how the person interrupted their leader. Crap. Already starting off on the wrong foot.

Danzo's eye narrowed. "You dare insult the head of a house in his own house? To the Hokage no less?"

"I meant no respect Lord Hokage. Who hasn't heard of Lord Danzo, Hokage of the Konoha? One of the most powerful shinobi to ever live?" That left such a distaste in his mouth. But to get out of the hole he already dug himself into, and, as much as he did not want to, he had to stroke Danzo's already over-the-top ego.

"Since you know who I am, it is only proper to tell me who you are," properly said Danzo.

The figure crossed his arms and one raised up and seemingly tap his chin in mocking thought. "Well I could, but I would have to kill you."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _A few minutes earlier…._

Sakura was having a difficult time keeping up with the strides that Tsunade was taking basically racing towards the Hokage mansion.

"My Lady…can you…slow down…" pleaded Sakura as she chased her Master.

The old blonde was concentrated. She was not going to let up. Sakura had raced to Tsunade's home and told her exactly what she saw. Then, without word her Master busted out the door to get to the Hokage mansion.

"I want to see this person myself."

Tsunade did not want to be left out of the loop or have any information withheld from her.

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All the ANBU in the room drew their swords and got into attack stances. Instead of shirking in fear the figure started to laugh, waving his hand. "I'm sorry I couldn't resist."

Danzo raised and lowered his hand to tell the ANBU to stand down. "I admire your bravery, but remember to respect those in power."

The figure nodded. "I will try and remember that."

"So who are you?" Asked Danzo again.

The figure bowed slightly. "My apologies Lord Hokage but I am not allowed to reveal who I am."

"Any why is that?" growled Danzo.

"I am following the instructions of the leader of our order." Stated the figure. "We are to keep our names secret."

Danzo, was not happy about that response. "Then by what am I supposed to call you?"

"That's a good question," said the cloaked man playfully. "I guess you can call me…Kit."

"That's an interesting name."

The figure chuckled. "It was given to me by a friend, and it fits me very well."

Suddenly he felt the approach of two very familiar chakra signatures. The double doors behind him burst open. Two women walked into the room, one blonde and one pink. The cloaked figure turned slightly to see the new arrives approach Danzo.

The sapphire eyes under the hood widened at the sight of the young kunoichi.

 _Sakura-chan…_

For three full years he had thought of her. Always wondering how she was, what she was doing. She looked gorgeous as always. No, she looked so much more grown up and more beautiful than ever! The long pink hair tie into a single ponytail reveal her nice neck which slowly flowed into the wonderful curves of her body.

He missed her. Her laugh, that look she gave him when he said something stupid, her quick hot temper to wail you over the head only to turn around being gentle. The whole package that was his Sakura-chan. No, she was for Sasuke. He was so happy to just see her again. He would like nothing more than to reach out and tell her he was safe, he was here. Sadly, he couldn't.

Both ladies give a wide breath between them and the long figure. Stopping besides Danzo, Tsunade and the current Hokage gave each other quick greetings before they turned all their attention back to the one standing in the middle of the room.

Tsunade considered the white hooded man in front of her. She was giving his and eye over. She admired the short sleeved, hooded, long white trench coat with the blue flamed ends that covered dark blue, long pants and long sleeved shirt over a mess shirt. He wore white wrap on both fore arms that run to and covered his hands, leaving the fingers exposed.

"So this is the person the whole village is a buzz about," stated Tsunade.

Sakura was giving the figure up and down. There was something about him…

"Ah, Tsunade the Fifth Hokage," greeted the white cloaked man.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" asked the previous Hokage.

"I know you," responded the hidden Naruto playfully.

"How?" chimed in Sakura.

Danzo cleared his throat. "As entertaining as this little conversation is, we must get down to business."

"Of course," agreed Naruto. "We received your message, so here I am. What do you want?"

"We want information," started Danzo. "We-

"-will not get any," Naruto finished for him. Again the ANBU did not like that. Neither did Danzo. Especially Danzo, for many reasons. Naruto chuckled. "You think that you can just order me here like a little lap dog and just expect me to hand you over all the information about me, about my fellow comrades, about our order? You are sitting way too high on a throne of imagined power."

"How dare you!" spat Danzo.

Tsunade and Sakura were both stunned at the sheer audacity and the bravery, or even stupidity of the person basically insulting the Hokage. _This guy…_

"How dare I? Why do I need to tell you anything else about us? We don't know you, we don't trust you. You have done nothing for us to prove to us that we can trust you with any of our information. Again, no disrespect to you or your ninja, but you have to earn our respect by showing us that you mean business to help us reach our goals. Only then will trust you with more information."

Danzo, seeing an opening, and with a smug smile interjected. "Your goals? You mean like the total elimination of the Akatsuki?"

Danzo felt like he had the cards finally to have this person back on their heels. The hidden Naruto was unimpressed.

"So you have been trying to keep tabs on us," Naruto said, stating the obvious.

"Yes, we have been able to find out your real goal in eliminating the Akatsuki."

Naruto was silent for a second then slowly built up into a full laughter. "Two years! For two years you have been trying to follow us and that is all you can come up with?" Naruto continued to laugh.

Danzo's patience and pride was wearing very thin. Anger was almost plastered on his usually stoic face.

Tsunade turned to Danzo in shock. "Two years? I thought you said you have only been at this for six months?" Danzo dare not looked at Tsunade. He kept his hateful eyes straight ahead at the laughing figure of Naruto.

"You sent men after us. To watch us, study us. Well guess what, you are not the only nation to be trying to figure out who and what we are."

Sakura again interjected and repeated her long lost teammate, " _Not the only nation_?"

Naruto turned his head to her and nodded. "Kumo, Kiri, Iwa, just to name a few."

Everyone's eyes in the room widened in astonishment. "But you should be proud Danzo, you have gotten farther than any other nation. Everyone else basically has…nothing."

"Now how do you possibly evade four ninja nations at once?" asked Danzo who was intrigued by this piece of information.

"We have good ninja," Naruto responded.

Danzo was a little skeptical. "No one has even heard of you, you cannot be that good."

Naruto raised his hand holding a bloodied forehead protector. The same one he walking into the village with. One of the men behind him gasp and feel around for the thing he was just holding. Naruto turned slightly holding the bloodied object up.

"Looking for this?" Naruto chuckled silently.

Most of everyone's eye were wider than dinner plates. All thinking the same thing. _How on earth did he do that?_

Naruto then turned back to Danzo and tossed the forehead protector to him. Being, the proud village leader that he was, one of his underlings caught it for him then hold it to show Danzo.

"That belonged to Itachi Uchiha."

The air was sucked form the room. _Everyone_ in the room was in shock as what the mysterious person in front of them was starting to dawn on them. Even Danzo, who was lost in his own thoughts and emotions, was visibly shaken.

Danzo could not believe his ears. Itachi Uchiha had always been a goal of his. He not only wanted Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan for himself, but Danzo had a feeling Itachi was housing the remaining eye of Shisui. This was to help him secure his power at the top of the world using it's greatest dojutsu. Now this, nameless, nationless, pathetic group of people were claiming to have taken out one of the world's most wanted and powerful ninja. Embarrassing and disgraceful, were two words that came to the Hokage's mind.

"Impossible," muttered Danzo, staring at the headband in his subordinate's hand.

Naruto chuckled. "How can it be impossible? That is….was his hitai-ate. If you don't believe me there should be some of his blood on there for you to compare it to what you have on file."

Danzo was still for a few heartbeats.

Sakura was still trying to wrap her head around the idea of the most famous rogue ninja being taken out by the cloaked man standing in front of her. "How did you manage to kill him?"

Naruto turned his attention to his teammate and longtime crush. "That's a secret," he teased.

Danzo nodded to his subordinate for him to take it away and get the blood tested. "I would still like for you to tell me how exactly you took out one of the most powerful rogue ninjas to ever exist?"

Naruto turned back to Danzo. "Apparently you have a hearing problem, because I just said it was a secret." This angered Danzo, and before he could speak Naruto continued. "As much as I love a good fight and all, we need to get down to business. We are very busy people and I am needed elsewhere very soon. We received your message, what is this mission you have for us?"

Danzo did not like the way the new comer was talking to him in his own village. This punk needed to be taught a lesson in respect. But, he was hesitant, if he was strong enough to take down Itachi, he could be major trouble. Even with all the powerful ninja in the room.

Snapping his fingers, one of his guards behind him handed him a folder, who he in turn extended to folder to the unknown Naruto. Being cautious, Naruto took the folder from Danzo being careful to not touch the unworthy Hokage. Naruto did not want those evil Hokage germs all over him.

Opening the file to read it, Danzo began to talk. "Between the Land of Wind and the Land of Rivers, far into the south there have been attacks on many villages by some C-ranked rogue ninjas. The Land of Rivers are having a hard time finding them. They have asked us to come in and eliminate them."

Naruto was flipping through the file to make sure the slimy Hokage did not leave out any information. "Do you have any information on individuals, abilities?"

"Much like yourself, there is not much information on them besides they are from different villages and they mostly use average level jutsu." Naruto nodded and he was still reading and understanding what Danzo was saying. "So we would still like-"

"-you will still not get any information about us until we believe we can trust you." Closing the file and throwing back in front of Danzo. "Judging by the numbers of ninja we could use a squad of a total of eight members."

Tsunade interjected. "Eight? Why would you want eight?"

Naruto turned to her to say something but Sakura beat him to him, "To feel out our ninja and dedication."

Everyone's attention turned to Sakura, who suddenly almost as pink as her hair was from the embarrassment of blurting out. Naruto nodded. "Very insightful. But I expect nothing less from the famed apprentice of Tsunade."

Sakura was more than a little taken back by words of the figure. What did he even know her? And was she really that famous? "I-I don't know what to say."

Naruto's smile was so wide under the hood. "Just a 'thank you' is fine."

Sakura was about to thank him when, once again, Danzo had to ruin some perfectly good fun. Clearing his throat, "So you want to work hand in hand with our ninja? Konoha has many strengths, including the world's best trackers. I will send four of my best ninja with you-"

Now it was Naruto's turn to interrupt. "-No offence Lord Hokage, we do not want to work with those only you pick. For us to really feel what Konoha is like we would like to get some normal shinobi, no ANBU."

This man was making Danzo infuriated. Danzo was no used to taking orders, or getting insulted in many different ways. But to find out more about this mysterious group he would have to swallow pride for now to gain the upper hand later.

"Do you have any idea who you would like to take along? There are a lot of ninja in our forces, and a few of them are great tracker like the Inuzuka or the infamous Hyuga with their dojutsu." asked Danzo.

Naruto knew who he wants.

"Well we do have good trackers ourselves, but more could not hurt. I could use one of each. Plus I would want a good leader and, of course a medic."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the man. "You've been following how Konoha sets up their squads." It was more statement than question.

"Not too difficult to figure out, plus one of your squads ran into part of our group a while ago and Sakura here was part of the group." Said Naruto. "So we accept the mission. I will be back in two days with three others from our organization so we can get the other members of the team and start the mission."

"Are they not close by?" asked Danzo. Maybe he could grab them too and interrogate them.

Naruto chuckled. "Hell no! We don't trust you right now. But they are just close enough that if I gave to signal, they were in perfect striking distance to start attacking village to come and rescue me if you were dumb enough to try and detain me."

With that preverbal knife into Danzo, and his guards obviously not happy with another insult to their leader, Naruto wanted to mess with the old war hawk one more time. "This is where I say goodbye. I am needed elsewhere." Naruto bowed to Danzo in the most sarcastic way possible.

Tsunade stepped forward. "Can we accompany you to the gate?"

Naruto smiled at the chance of spending time with the old hag and the girl he feel in love with. "Sure!" Naruto, Tsunade, and Sakura started to walk to the door to leave.

Danzo was shaking in rage at the seer disgrace and disrespect the person was showing him. Underneath the bandage Shisui's Sharingan spun to life to scan this new comer and to find out who he was. Danzo's exposed eye widened. He was admitting massive energy from….everywhere. How could he be that powerful?

Naruto paused in his steps and without turning around asked in a sarcastic tone like he already knew the answer, "Looking for something Danzo?"

Danzo did his best to not more or react. How did he know he was doing looked at? Does he know? How could he?

Naruto continued his walking out the door following Tsunade and Sakura.

As soon as the doors closed. "Follow him. Find out where the rest of his group is hiding. Find out who Kit is."

Three of his ROOT agents melted into the floor and disappeared. Danzo was determined. He would get the last laugh.

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Still being surrounded by ANBU, Sakura, Tsunade, and the cloaked Naruto were walking away from the Hokage mansion. Apparently word had gotten around about the stranger because many people, ninja and civilian alike wanted to catch a glimpse of the new comer.

The group continued their way to the gate when Tsunade finally spoke. "You must have some major guts to have insulted Danzo like that."

The figure shrugged. "I knew he would not dare touch me, not until he knew more about my comrades and how powerful we are. He is all about manipulation and gaining power, and willing to do anything to get it."

Tsunade was taken back by what he spoke. "You have been looking into Danzo. That's dangerous."

"Danzo is only a man. As much as he thinks he is untouchable, he is not. Besides, we have only been observing him. Nothing more," stated Naruto.

"To what end?" asked Sakura.

Naruto looked at her. And looked deep into her emerald eyes. She was always a soft spot with him. It was hard for him to not spill everything.

"I can't tell you everything, or anything right now but I can say this… there is a reason our organization was created."

Sakura thought about it for a second. "So killing all of the Akatsuki is not your main goal?"

Naruto reached up and scratched his hood. "It's part of the path to what our dream is."

Sakura was curious. "What is your dream?"

Naruto stopped walking. How much he would love to tell them out all of his dreams, including bringing Sasuke home, have Sakura as the love of his life, to be Hokage, to obtain world peace… yet he had taken a vow of silence. So he settled for this. "I have many dreams, I hope one day they all come true." He continued walking.

"Can you tell me one?" asked Sakura holding her hands behind her back. He knew this was when she was in a playful mood. "Please?"

"Hmmmm." Naruto thought. "Well there is a girl.."

"Oh she must be pretty special to have a guy like you notice her. Does she know she likes you?" Sakura walked a little closer much more interested.

"You don't even know who I am." _But you really do…._

"Well you seem to be pretty powerful, you don't seem like a bad guy. Plus, call it a girl's intuition. So, does she know you like her?"

"She doesn't know I exist."

 _Well that was a depressing thought._ "Why not?" asked Sakura.

"That is a long story that is too sad to get into," answered Naruto. "Plus, she is in love with someone else. She would never be with me."

Sakura was a little saddened by his horrible responses. "Have you just told her? Maybe one day she will return the feelings?"

 _How can I, when I haven't kept my promise?_ "I want to, but the situation is complicated beyond reason, plus I do not want to put her in any danger. On top of that, it is more precarious because of the organization I am a part of. To tell her and having people find out would put her in great danger."

They approached the gates. "Well I hope everything works out for you."

Naruto turned around and faced Tsunade and Sakura. "Maybe one day, if this small alliance works out and we get to trust each other more, I can tell you more."

Sakura smiled. "Sounds great!"

"Where will you be going now?" asked Tsunade.

Naruto turned on looked into the distance. "I will gather with a few of my comrades and return. Sorry still cannot tell you where." Turning back to look at them. "Thank you for having me, I will return in two days." He bowed, turned heel and started walking away from the village.

The master and apprentice watched the figure get smaller and smaller walking away from the village.

"You took to him quickly," commented Tsunade.

Sakura smiled. "I can't tell why but I feel like a can trust him, something familiar too…"

"Well whatever it he, you may be able to find out on the mission."

Sakura smiled.

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Naruto had been walking for an hour before taking a detour off the path into the wild woods. In sage mode he could feel the chakras of the ROOT agents on his tail since he left the village. He needed to make sure they could not see him for what he did next. Wandering for another ten minutes he arrived at a small cave. Walking inside the cave shot off into two tunnels, he took the left, which led to a dead end. He reached the end. Closed his eyes, and puffed out of existence.

Miles away at the top of a cliff looking out over the massive forest sat cross legged the real Naruto, with his hood down, with all the members of his organization standing behind him.

Receiving the information from his clone. He opened his now sage eyes.

"It is done." Naruto stood up and turn to his allies. His friends. His family. "Mission accepted. Now our mission begins. So let's get to work."

They all nodded to the spikey blond and many of them walked away in small groups to start their assignments. Naruto turned to one of the people who remained with him. "So how does it feel to finally be a free man?"

"It means a lot that you did that for me, Naruto-kun."

Naruto shook his head. "It was repayment for everything that you have done for me."

The person reached up and also removed their hood to reveal raven colored hair.

"You didn't have to do that Naruto-kun."

Naruto reached out and put and hand on their shoulder. "But still it's a small thanks to you, Itachi."

The raven haired Uchiha gave a rare smile.


	5. Chapter 5

HELLO ALL YOU LOVELY PEOPLE! Guess who's back! Me, duh. Gosh. lol jk. Ok Sorry about some of the wait guys I have so much going on right now. I might be moving to New York, just got in a car accident, some family problems(not with me), and some friends having problems so I have a lot on my plate. But because I love you all so much, I am here with another installment!

So I must admit, I LOVE music. So to help me write I listen to music. So I have here some of the songs that I think would be perfect for this Fanfiction. Just give the music a chance even if it is not your cup of tea, there is a reason they are on the playlist. Song - Artist

The Resistance - Anberlin

End of Me - Ashes Remain

Pompeii - Bastille

Finding a Way - Before Their Eyes

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - The Wedding

This is War - 30 Seconds to Mars

Hope - We Came As Romans

The Kill - 30 Seconds to Mars

If It Means A Lot To You - A Day To Remember

War of Change - Thousand Foot Krutch

Carnivore - Starset

Run and Escape - Red

Through It All - Spoken

Break the World - Nine Lashes

Up From The Ashes - The Letter Black

Anthem of the Lonely - Nine Lashes

Final Masquerade - Linkin Park

Centuries - Fall Out Boy

Outlaws - Disciple

Arise - Flyleaf

Love & Despair - I Am Empire

I know there is a lot but oh well. Hope you enjoy the music and the story.

/just remember, you all are worth more than the world, go and spread love, because without love, failure is unavoidable.

and now the story.

I dont own Naruto. ok blah blah blha... o the story. enjoy!

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Ch 5

The village was a buzz over this newcomer that required a bunch of ANBU and ninja to watch over. Different murmurs here and there say he is some sort of evil ninja, other say he is some unknown hero, other say he is a just a hoax. The gossip and debate of who this guy was, was not limited to just the civilian population, but the ninja population. Among ninja, the word of the outstanding order to gather more information on who they were had gotten around, which shrouded even more mystery about who they were and the theories about who they were grew with each new story told.

Sakura had become some sort of "expert" on the subject since she was one of the few who actually saw the blue flamed cloaked man, and was in the even more exclusive group of people who heard him talk and to make it even better she was one of a handful who actually talked to him.

Hence this is the situation Sakura found herself in right now. Surrounded by who remained of Konoha's famous Rookie-12. Obviously no longer twelve, and no longer just rookies. Chunin and jonin were their ranks.

But not right now.

Sakura felt like they were back at the academy, and everyone found out she had some juicy news and they were all clamoring over each other to hear her and ask her questions.

"What was he like?"

"Was he powerful?"

"What weapons did he use?"

"Was he very mysterious as everyone says he is?"

"Is he scary?"

"Was he hot?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and crossed her arms at her best girlfriend's question. "Out of all the questions you could ask, you ask if he is attractive."

Slamming her hands on the table and standing up Ino got up. "Of course forehead! If half the rumors are true about him he could take all of us out! That is attractive in my book!"

A hand appeared on Ino's shoulder, guiding her down back to her seat. It was, of course Shikamaru. "I think we should let Sakura tell us about him instead of pounding her with questions so she has no time to speak."

Sakura nodded at Shikamaru. Now everyone was hanging on every word she spoke.

"For one who was not in friendly territory he was unusually calm. Not just calm, he was almost arrogant. He insulted Danzo…" Before she could continued, she was interrupted by an impatient blonde.

"He insulted Danzo and lived?" almost screamed Ino.

Neji scoffed. Everyone knew why. No one insulted Danzo and got away with…

"Not just once, multiple times."

Everyone in the group was stunned.

"W-what? How did he just away with it?" popped in Choji.

Sakura twirled some strands of her strawberry hair with one finger, using the other hand to cover her mouth because she was chuckling. "He almost seemed to have Danzo completely pegged. Almost as if he knew what Danzo was going to say. At some point he made Danzo look like a complete fool."

"He must have some sort of death wish," Said TenTen. Most of the group murmured in agreement.

"So how did he get out of the village?" inquired Shikamaru. "With a group like that I would think Danzo would want to capture him and extract information somehow."

Sakura suddenly got serious, which the whole group could sense. "He had evidence that he killed Itachi Uchiha."

As if not already blown away by this mysterious guy and by extension group, now everyone was speechless.

They killed the most wanted man in the world? Who were they? Everyone was in their own thoughts and feeling about this. Sakura herself, internally was still in confusion over the whole thing. Sasuke left for power and the eventual revenge of his whole clan upon Itachi. So with no one to have the vengeance to act out upon, what would Sasuke do? He could always return to the village. No, that was out of the question. Danzo was here. But just the thought of him returning. Sakura would love that.

However in extension, there was a part she would never get back. Naruto. Naruto's goal was Hokage and Sasuke. Sakura had promised herself she would at least complete one dream for Naruto. That was bringing Sasuke home. What she would do after that was beyond her.

Sakura's small musing was broken by a small "No way," from Kiba.

"T-that's impossible!" Shouted Ino.

"How?" chimed in Hinata.

Sakura shrugged. "He wouldn't say. He did say they had very powerful ninja in their organization."

"They would have to be powerful to have taken out Itachi Uchiha," mused Shikamaru. "Do they want the world on their tails?"

"Apparently they have been chased by other countries and have easily avoided them," told Sakura.

"Did thy give any other information?" Neji inquired.

Sakura shook her head. "He gave us a lot of information, yet no information at the same time."

"How does that make any sense Sakura?" sarcastically asked Kiba.

"It is hard to describe. He told us some about them yet nothing specific. No real details. No number or anything. Whoever he is he is very good at hiding things…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A loud angry yell was followed by the sound of glass shattering by breaking on the floor.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST HIM?" shouted Danzo.

He was just informed by his men that they had lost Kit. And on top of that, had no idea where he went. His best men. Fooled by faceless figure.

"I'm sorry Lord Danzo! I will accept my punishment!" shouted his kneeling follower before him.

Danzo was silent for a moment. He recollected himself. He had to remain calm. Showing this outrage was a weakness. There is no room for weakness.

"No punishment necessary," said Danzo. "You have work to do. Prepare everyone for the return of this Kit and his little friends. I was you to follow them on their mission, at a far distance. I was the streets shut down for them to be escorted to and from my mansion."

Danzo turned and walked out leave leaving his ROOT kneeling on the floor. "Hai, Lord Hokage!"

Danzo was retiring for the night. As he walked back to his room a small grin graced his wrinkled face. Danzo had a plan to either capture or kill every member of that annoying bug of an organization. He just needed patience.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two days passed quickly for Sakura, who was a little excited for the mission and to meet the rest of this new guy's organization. There was just something out him, she could not quite put her thumb on it. Yesterday Danzo informed her, through Tsunade, that she would be going on the mission as medic. The others on this mission were going to be Shikamaru, Kiba and Akamaru, and Neji.

The pink haired girl was currently in her room putting together her medical supplies she thought she would need on this little venture. She brought double what she usually would for a mission, but since they were going with double the people, double the supplies needed. Just making sure she had everything, she sealed extra clothes in a scroll, just in case.

Sakura was very excited. They were going to be the first ninja to ever work with this mysterious group. Ever. The group that was evading multiple nations, the group who killed Itachi Uchiha, the group who no one knows very much about. To add on top of that she would meet that man again. Something just drew her to him, almost making her trust him completely. Almost. Her ninja training would not allow that to happen. However she would get to spend some time with him, so many they could get to know each other better. This brought a smile to her face, she had not gotten close to any guy since… now she frowned. Naruto. Why did everything have to remind her of him? Had he really become so essential to her life that living without him almost seemed impossible? Yes. Yet, even after his passing he still besieged her heart, mind, and life. He is not even alive and he is still the reason she gets up every day. Why did he have to die before telling her how he felt? She would give anything to see him again.

Double checking everything again, she strapped her pack to her back and began to head out.

A nice mission was exactly what she needed. A smirk appeared on her face. She would make him proud.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two faceless ROOT ANBU walked into the Hokage office. "Everything is ready My Lord."

Danzo was standing with his hands held behind his back looking out over his village. "Are the guards ready and the route to here secured?"

"Hai."

Danzo's evil smirked appeared. "Good."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Four hooded, white, cloaked figures were walking towards the grand Village Hidden in the Leaves. Naruto was walking at the front, leading his selected team to his old home. Naruto could not sleep last night he was so excited.

 ** _How does it feel to officially return to this retched place?_** A voice inside Naruto's head rumbled.

Naruto smiled. _It feels wonderful!_

Naruto could almost feel the Kyuubi smirk. **_Remember, keep your head in the game and out of the clouds. I know you are thinking of that pink haired vixen, but we cannot have you distracted._**

 _Yes, Oh Great Kur-sama!_ Sarcastically replied Naruto, teasing Kurama. _Just remember who came up with the plan._

Kurama snapped his jaw shut in annoyance. **_And don't forget who gave you most of those ideas kit._**

 _Oh relax, you big softy cuddle bear._ Countered Naruto.

The Nine-tailed chuckled. Never would he have ever thought he would be friendly with one of his flesh prisons. However, this particular one slowly grew on him. This kid just would not die, would not bend, would not break. The great Nine-tailed Fox had to respect that. Even though some of the reason the kid would not die was because of the Fox powers, he gave him the benefit of the doubt. The kid was just someone who you could believe in. Even the stubborn Fox, unwound and put his trust in the kid. It took some time but they are now true friends.

 ** _Bite me._** Insulted Kurama.

Naruto laughed. _Love you too._

 ** _Alright Kit. Are you ready to do this?_** The fox raised his head and prepared himself. Their plan was about to begin.

Naruto shook a little in anticipation. _Oh I'm ready! Let's do it!_

Opening his eyes underneath his hood, his eyes were a combination of Sage and Nine-tails powers. He could sense everything around him. Feelings, chakras, anything to give someone away, he felt it. He felt around for something specific that only he and a few other people knew about. He smiled finding what he was looking for. Letting go of his powers his eyes faded once again into his normal, beautiful sapphire eyes. Everything was going to plan.

 ** _Thanks to me._** Reminded the Fox.

Slowly they were approaching the gate. There was unusually small traffic today for Konoha, but the few that were passing by and walking in the same direction as them, gave them all a wide berth.

From under her own hood, Guren spoke up. "What kind of reception do you think we are going to get? This is the first time we ever really publicly expose ourselves."

"Danzo will be cautious, and try to isolate us and make us feel like we are at the disadvantage. We will be completely surrounded with no way out," stated the newest member of the group.

"Sounds like fun," purred Naruto. Everyone knew that voice. He was excited.

Impossible odds, long shots, and expectations to fail, this is where Naruto thrived. Bet against him? Hand in your money now. You lost.

"I wonder how the rest of the team is doing," Yukimaru voiced.

"They are led by Itachi. Nothing is going to go wrong," confidently said Guren. "Plus he knows how to sneak into Konoha. He has done it multiple times. He even did it a few times for our fearless leader, who cannot face a certain little someone."

Guren loved having a tad bit of fun at other people's expenses. It was her thing. But she did it out of love, a love that Yukimaru helped her find. As much as Naruto loves a good fight, it was time to get serious. Or as serious as Naruto could be.

"Alright guys, from here on out we use our aliases," commanded Naruto.

"Aw what's wrong Kit?" teased Guren following her leader's orders, but not without a little insubordination. "Afraid the big bad Hokage could find you out?"

Naruto did a quick impersonation of the infamous Uchiha 'hm'. Then said, "You know I am not afraid of Danzo. That old, wrinkly man can shove off. Just remember the plan."

"Hai," all three responded at once. They all trust Naruto without question.

Finally they got close to the fate leading into The Hidden Leaf Village. As they approached Naruto noticed all the ninja that were around, and the amount of ANBU that had come out of their little holes to attempt to be a little bit intimidating. Naruto was ready. Their first major operation had begun.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Lord Danzo, we have received word that four hooded figures have arrived at the gate. Out escort forces are leading them here."

Danzo turned around in his chair. "Good, retrieve the squad going on the mission."

The ROOT ANBU disappeared to get the waiting members of the selected squad. Danzo turned back around to over watch the approaching visitors surrounded by all his ninja. "Let them come."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For the second time in a few days times, Naruto finds himself going down the same path going to the office of the Hokage. This time however, it was obvious security had been stepped up. Leaving nothing to chance. This made Naruto proud, sad, happy, excited and disappointed all at the same time. Either way, they would learn a lesson.

Reaching the Hokage tower they started making their way up to the main office.

The newest member of the group spoke up. "Man, this Hokage knows how to try and rub his power in people's faces."

One of the guards growled at him. "What did you say?"

Naruto and Guren chuckled. Naruto turned his head toward the guard, "Don't worry about him. He can be a little judgmental sometimes." _Even if he is right about it…_

"Just watch your mouth around our Hokage. He demands total respect," warned the guard.

"Did he earn it, or just demand it from you?" questioned the young member.

The guard was about to retort when Naruto butted in. "We are here children." Naruto turned around. "Behave yourselves."

"Hai." All three comrades responded at once.

As the four hooded teammates approached the double doors, two guards opened them revealing the office within. The team filed inside and stood in similar fashion to how they were walking in, Naruto up from with Yukimaru then Guren behind him, and their newest member at the rear keeping a close eye on things.

Danzo sat facing them with his hands folded in front of him. "Welcome back Kit."

"Thank you Lord Hokage," responded Naruto "But I must say, the added security is a bit overkill though."

"Forgive my bluntness," started the Hokage, "But we do not know you yet, or your abilities or the fact that you can be trusted. You once said the about us." The smug look of satisfaction grew on the face of the old Hokage.

Naruto kept his anger down, because let's be honest, this is Naruto. He is not mad, He is laughing. "That's a good one, you got me eating my own words." He was rubbing the back of his head with one hand like he used to do a lot.

"I'm glad we can have this…comradery but it is time to get to business."

Putting his hand down, "Yes I agree. Is your team ready to go?"

"They should be here…now." As if almost on cue, the doors behind opened up and four people and one canine entered in to stand grouped next to the newcomers.

Naruto looked Sakura up and down from under his hood. "See told you I would be back."

Sakura looked at Naruto and gave him a big smile. "It's good to see someone keep their promises."

Whether she wanted it to or not, that hit Naruto hard. It was a great thing his face was covered, because it scrunched up in pain. Was that stab at him? How could she know it was him? Did everything have to remind him of the promise that he never kept to her? Naruto felt like his heart was stabbed with the world's biggest kunai. She thinks he is dead, so she must hate him for not keeping the one promise to her. Why must he always do things to have her hate him?

"Yea it is hard to find that now a days," spoke up Guren.

"Oh I know," said Sakura. "There was this one guy though…"

Naruto perked up at this before, of course, Danzo had to ruin everything. "Need I remind everyone why we are here? This is not just a social visit."

Everyone's attention turned to Danzo, except Yukimaru. He was content on staring out the window.

"Of course, Lord Hokage," begrudgingly agreed Naruto. "I feel like we should introduce the teams to each other. We will let the home ninja go first."

Sakura turned to the group. "My name is Sakura Haruno."

"I'm Kiba, This is Akamaru." The faithful companion gave a happy bark in hello.

"Neji Hyuga."

Lazily the final member spoke up. "Shikamaru Nara."

Naruto nodded at all his old comrades.

"It's your turn." Spoke the Hokage nodding at Naruto.

"Hey everyone, you can call me Kit." Started Naruto. Pointing behind him to Guren, "Her name is Crys." Pointing to Yukimaru, "That is Three." Pointing to the final member of the group, "You can call him Red."

Shikamaru perked up. "We can't have your real names?"

Guren chuckled. "You expect us, an organization focused one secrecy, to freely give out our real identities? I thought you Naras were supposed to be smart."

"Crys," growled Naruto warningly.

"Kit your subordinate need to learn her respect," pointed out Danzo with that I-am-higher-than-thou kind of attitude.

Naruto laughed for a second. "Oh, don't worry about her, she is just blunt. No real filter. She knows respect. Like our organization, you have to earn it. It took me some time too, but she came around."

"Are we done wasting time," asked Danzo annoyed.

"Sure," agreed Naruto.

Snapping his fingers and ANBU appeared handed Danzo two scrolls, then disappeared again. Tossing one to Sakura and one to Naruto, Danzo began his explanation. "It is a rather simple clean up mission. Locations of where the missing ninja were last seen are marked on the map. Go, eliminate them, and return."

"Seems simple enough," commented Kiba.

"Even the simple things can turn out to be not so simple," Said a voice from the back.

Everyone turned to look at the figure who stood in the back. A little shorter in stature, but was standing in balance, gave him an even more mysterious appeal.

"Very insightful," said Danzo. This surprised the ninja of Konoha. Danzo rarely praised anyone. Ever. Yet this one person walks in a gets complimented at saying one thing?

Naruto butts in, "Simple or not, we have to get this mission started." He started to turn and leave this cursed office when someone stopped him.

"Before you go, can you at least tell us the name of your organization?" inquired Shikamaru. "Just knowing that, we could probably work better knowing your stance."

It did not take much to figure out that Shikamaru is, first a genius, but always presented sound logic, he was always hard to argue against. Once again, Shikamaru proved that.

Sighing, Naruto turned back to Danzo and saw everyone but his own people looking at him. This was not in the original plan, and something told Naruto not to trust Danzo on this, but he saw almost no other way out of this. The plan was to reveal themselves and their true intentions later, but giving the name couldn't hurt. Could it? Oh, well, their plans be damned, he had to let the cat out of bag for now. Well, at least it's head.

"We are simple call ourselves The Blue Flame of Rebirth."

All of Naurto's comrades were watching everyone's reactions to see if maybe they had learned their name before. It seems this is the first time anyone here had picked it up.

Danzo seemed to be contemplating the meaning of the name.

Naruto interrupted his thought processes. "As for the meaning, we can maybe talk about it when we get back." Naruto turned heel leading his fellow Blue Flame members out of the office back to the front gates.

The Konoha ninja remained still until they were formally dismissed by their Hokage. Danzo waited until The Blue Flames of Rebirth were far enough away to not hear it. "See what information you can get from they. Anything at all. Dismissed."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hearing Danzo's final order to his team with his fox-heightened senses, Naruto smirked.

 ** _Everything is going according to plan_** _._ Rumbled out Kurama.

The Blue Flame turned the corner to leave the large building. "Danzo gave them the order." Naruto informed his fellow members.

Guren scoffed. "Why is Ray always right?" Naruto was proud that she remembered to use Itachi's codename while the possibility that other people may hear his name.

After they got out of the Hokage building, they started their trek back to the village gates. Naruto looked over his should back towards the heads of the Hokage, which unfortunately included Danzo, but he was not looking at the faces themselves….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The wind was whipping at the tail of the blue-flamed coat of the infamous Itachi Uchiha. Behind him stood the rest of the Blue Flames of Truth. He stared out over the village that he used to call home. Nostalgia washed over the black haired man as he remembered all the struggles that came with being torn between two different masters. For years he then served the Akatsuki while feeding information to Master Jiraiya, while holding back the forces that would harm the Hidden Leaf Village. Yet, Itachi had his sights on more. Naruto has shown him this. He wanted more than just for his brother and himself to have peace, he wanted world peace. Naruto had shown him the way, had shown the determination to be able to get the job done. Now, after years of planning and patience, their plan was starting.

Itachi opened his Sharingan eyes to look down into the village to see Naruto look at him and give him a sight nod.

It was time.

"The operation has begun."

The Blue Flame disappeared, leaving Itachi on the Hokage Monument. He sighed. At long last, the first steps were begin taken. He had his job to do.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Blue Flame of Rebirth waited patiently, well most of them, at the gates of the village waiting for the Konoha team to catch up.

"Man, they take forever!" complained Guren out loud.

"Crys, relax they are almost here."

"Oh, be quiet Red," snapped Guren at the new member of the Blue Flame. Red chuckled a rare chuckle.

"Look they are here!" shouted Yukimaru almost bouncing up and down.

"Ok Three, settle down," ironically said Naruto. It took all his energy to burst out in excitement.

Sakura walked right up to Naruto almost looking right through his darkened hood. "Are you guys ready to go Kit?"

"Ready when you are!"

"Alright everyone!" Sakura announced to the newly formed eight man team. "Let's move out."

They all started their journey out of the village with Naruto and Sakura in the lead. Naruto was smiling. This is the first mission in years Naruto would be working with Sakura on a mission. He was thrilled at the possibility at showing her a little bit of what he could do. While half his brain was all scrambled with the pink hair ninja he was walking next to, the other half was going through the plans the other team was currently executing in the village behind him. If all went according to their plan. By the time anyone in Konoha had any idea anything was happening, they would be long gone and starting part two.

But for now...they have a mission to compete.


	6. Chapter 6

HELLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EVERYONE!

my lanta, I am terribly sorry. so much as been going on. i have been work 50 hour work weeks. I am a bit tired and usually not inspired to write. However, because i know you guys want more, WELL HERE IS MORE! few things of business, I am going to be trying to make the chapters a bit longer so it maybe take a few more days to post but it will be worth it. Second, for all you English majors out there, I KNOW! Listen, I have NEVER been the best English student, and remember I am usually tired when i write this so forgive me if I make some mistakes. I am trying to go back a fix things I see, but that takes time. Oh and what is with the rules of English that if you know them...you can break them purposefully? Stupid. But whatever. I do my best. Third, SHOUT OUT TO MY BRE-CHAN! Love you girl. She works with me and needs a little pick-me-up. So everyone send her some mental love.

Before I begin... Your life is worth more than the world, let no one tell you different. You are not worthless. FEEL LOVE!

well...Im done ENJOY! My pleasure.

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The eight man team was leaping through the trees towards their target destination. It would take another full day of travel so both teams wanted to get comfortable with one another. Most of it was small talk, but nothing of abilities, where they were from, or anything deemed "important" information. Naruto spent most of his time talking with Sakura. It just seemed so natural to talk together, even after all these years apart.

They had been traveling for about a day at a decent pace before night began to overtake them.

Sakura turned to Naruto. "I think we should stop and make camp soon. There is no point to keep going all night."

The hooded Naruto nodded and turned back to the rest of the eight man team and announced, "We will be stopping soon to set up camp for the night." There were general acknowledgement responses from just about everyone in the group.

A few minutes later Naruto landed on a branch, stopping his forward movement, holding is fist in air. The seven other people and one animal landed on separate branches following his silent order. The blond turned to the last person of the group and jerked his head in the direction they were going. Red nodded and took off by himself, down out of the trees and out of sight.

"Why are you sending him alone?" question the medic ninja beside him. "I can send one of my team, because this _is_ a joint venture."

Naruto knew that was a tiny stab at him to remind him of this shared adventure between them. "It's ok, if I didn't think he could not scout ahead by himself without being able to return I would send one of you along with him. Here is the thing, Red is the best scout in the organization. He has… special abilities to see almost everything."

Sakura was busy trying to figure out what that special ability was. Was it a dojutsu? Most likely not. That chances of that were extremely slim. Maybe he was just really good at observation and stealth. As much as the pink haired beauty wanted to ask, she had a funny feeling she already what the answer was going to be.

As they waited she looked over at the hooded figure simply known as Kit. The long talk they had on the way here was very much reflective of their group. You learned a lot, while learning nothing at the same time. She just felt drawn to Kit. His personality was very familiar. Playful, kind, and a bit of a jokester. Yet because of the hood he had a mystery about him. It was as if someone took her old teammates and morphed them into one person. Most of the positives at least. Personally, and for the mission, Sakura wanted to find out who Kit really was. However she needed to tread lightly, very lightly. The man beside her killed Itachi Uchiha. As powerful as one of her earth-shattering punches were, he had true power, to wipe the floor with her. Sakura was taken out of her musing by the sound of a loud bird call.

"Ok, it's clear," Stated Kit as he stood up. He turned to the rest of the group, "Everyone down to the ground."

Without another word Naruto jumped down landing on the ground. The rest of the six people and one canine followed suit. They landed a few yards where Red was leaning against a large boulder that was in front of a cave.

Naruto walked up to Red, "All clear?"

Nodding Red replied, "Looks like no one has touched it since we were last here."

Neji popped in the conversation. "You guys have been here before?"

"We go everywhere!" exclaimed Yukimaru.

Guren patted Yukimaru on the shoulder. "What Three is trying to say is that the missions we have been on has brought us all over different lands."

"Alright everyone," spoke up Sakura, "Let's get a fire going and we can start picking people to keep watch."

After finding firewood for a small fire, Naruto and Sakura decided that one person from each team would keep watch at the same time. The unspoken reason was that neither team wanted to completely trust the side just yet, even if Naruto knew everyone from Konoha and trusted them with his life, hi own team did not.

Everyone got settled on and started eating some of the food they brought with them. The conversation was light until Shikamaru spoke up.

"So I have been thinking about your name, as troublesome as it may be."

The Blue Flame perked up at this. Naruto was especially interested. "And what do you think it means?"

Shikamaru shifted around a bit to find a more reclined position before continuing. "The Blue Flames of Rebirth. The color blue implies truth, trust, dependability. The flame part must show how passionate you are about what you represent and the hope that one day the ideals you hold dear will spread and consume everything it touches. And finally Rebirth, a second chance, redemption, starting a new, revolution. So what is your true goals?"

Everyone fell quite to this. The Konoha ninja waited to hear what and of the Blue Flames responses would be. Naruto sat in silence for a moment. No surprise that Shikamaru was right in basically every aspect. The blond just wish it wasn't so soon.

The rest of the Blue flame looked towards their leader also waiting for a response to the Nara's in depth inquiry. Would he actually tell his longtime friends what he had set out to do? It was too early for people to find out who they really were.

Everyone was taken back a little when Naruto started to chuckle and then burst into laughter. "You are perhaps the most observant person I have ever know besides Red." Naruto calmed down a little before continuing. "Yes you are mostly right all counts, that may not be the full meaning, but yes that is what we represent. Plus, you must be as hard of hearing as you old Hokage because we will not reveal our true goals until we can trust you. If we can trust you at all."

"But if you never share information with us, then how can possibly trust you?" countered Shikamaru.

Guren and Yukimaru but started giggling.

"What's so funny?" blurt out Kiba.

Naruto answered. "You mean like we can trust you when Danzo specifically ordered you to get more information from us?"

All the Hidden Leaf team was in shock and wide-eyed. How did he know?

"Y-you don't know what you are talking about," stumbled out Sakura.

Naruto once again laughed with a hand on his head. Once he lowered his hand he very seriously said, "I heard him give you the order."

If possible their eyes grew wider. The rest of Blue Flame sat unmoved by this information because they already known about it. Even Shikamaru could not counter that. Neji immediately tensed waiting for the Blue Flame to attack. Sakura noticed this off the corner of her eye and did the same.

Naruto raised his hand. "Stop." Again everyone was taken back. What was with this guy? "We are not mad or even going to attack you."

Sakura and Neji relaxed a bit, not fully trusting this guy.

"But we do want information."

Shikamaru scoffed. "You want information yet will not give any yourselves? That's not really a fair trade off."

"Ok Shikamaru, what do you want to know. If I can, I will tell you."

"That's a joke right?" Kiba blurt out.

Guren snapped her head to Kiba, "You think we are a joke?"

"No one has ever heard of you! So yea I would call you a joke!" Akamaru barked agreeing with his best pal.

Guren spoke up before Naruto could speak. "The reason you never heard of us because we want it that way!"

"Pshhh. Yea ok." Kiba crossed his arms and leaned back.

"Kiba," Sakura turned to look at the canine man, "they have avoided Danzo for two years."

"No way," breathed Kiba.

"I heard it when Kit first came to the Hidden Leaf," Explained the pink haired medic. "Danzo had lied about how long they were following The Blue Flame. He only said he had them followed for six months when in reality it was over two years!"

Silence filled the cave. "How do you not have any bounties on your heads?" asked the pale eyed Hyuga prodigy.

"Because we have good people," responded Yukimaru.

"He means good people as in good as a ninja and good as in generally a good person," interpreted Red.

"What does it take to be a member?" asked Neji. Sakura was thrown into confusion. Why was Neji asking that? They have only been together for a day!

"Hm," said Naruto doing a pretty decent Uchiha impression. Sakura snapped around to Kit because her spine was giving her shivers about being reminded about Sasuke. "Why? You interested in joining?"

Crossing his arms and closing his eyes, Neji took a breath. "No. I'm just interested. If you all are good people, as you say, there must be something common between you all."

Everyone sat in silence waiting for anyone in the Blue Flame to answer, the only sound was the small fire snapping. Then from outside the cave came the rumble of thunder. Rain was coming. As the patter of rain intensified Naruto began to speak.

"We do all share something in common. You are not so much tested into the group or forced to show us how powerful you are. We could care less for power. What we look for is the strength of the person. What they have been through, that drive that will keep them going even after they are supposed to die. All of us have suffered. We are striving for something that seems impossible, something bigger than any one person, or even a nation. That is what connects us, and drives every single in the Blue Flame of Rebirth."

"So what is this goal," Sakura asked with much interest. Whoever this guy is, he was quite the speaker. "You keep talking about it but never mention it."

Naruto lifted his hand, his dominate right hand, and looked into his palm as almost to find the answer there. Flexing his fingers a few times he thought so hard about telling his friend that he was really alive, that he was striving for world peace. Clenching his hand into a fist, he steeled his resolve. No he could not tell them. Telling them could put them in danger. That was something he would never put at risk. Especially his pink hair squad mate.

Red beat Naruto to the explanation. "The reason we never talk about it is simple. We do not trust anyone who has not proven themselves. To top that off, a few of us have a few people we care about outside of our organization. We do not want to put them in harm's way."

Naruto mentally thanked Red for explaining that. It was already hard enough not to blab about everything, right then and there.

"If you have so much in common and it takes a lot to trust you, how did anyone get into the Blue Flame," Sakura asked.

Naruto remained quiet. He was the Leader of the Blue Flame of Rebirth. Thankfully Guren came to the rescue. "He is the one who united us all into this cause, this organization. He can be a very good judge of character. He can sees good in anyone. He is headstrong, and keeps us going in the right direction. Once you meet him, then, and only then, you can get into the Blue Flame."

"So who is he?" asked Kiba.

Red stood up and walked closer to the fire to cast light into his hood and showed the bottom part of his face. Sakura was astonished. Red looked so young. "He is called many names. Some positive, some negative. He is from a clan that hails from your village. As for who he is. Whether he is going to reveal who he is, that is his own choice."

Red turned and sat down going back to his small meal.

"You guys like to give us nothing, don't you?" sarcastically said Kiba.

"Don't be offended we do this to everyone," shrugged Guren.

After a few more minutes of idle chatter, Naruto stood up and stretched his arms out. "Alright everyone, we have a big day ahead of us. I'll take first watch. Who wants to join me?"

He was hopeful Sakura would take the chance. "I'll take first watch." She did not disappoint.

Naruto nodded and walked to the mouth of the cave. The rains had passed, but the rumble of thunder could still be heard. Everyone was getting their beds ready for the night. Naruto began to look at the full moon in the black sky only spotted with a few clouds. The light from the moon gave the area a glowing look, as if everything was alive. A minute later or so, the pink haired medic appeared next to him.

"Nice night," commented Sakura.

"Yes it is," Naruto agreed.

Sakura's mind was racing, she did not know what to say or ask him to keep some sort of conversation going. He seemed to be intimidating yet completely friendly at the same time.

"You don't have to be so uptight Sakura."

Sakura wanted to slap herself and jumping at the sound of his voice. Some ninja she was.

"Sorry," said Sakura as she used a finger to tuck some pink hair behind her ear. "It's just I don't know what to say." Why was she acting this way? Why was she so nervous?

"Just say what is on your mind," suggested Naruto, he found it amusing at how Sakura was acting around him. Even a numbskull like Naruto could see that.

"But there is so much!" Sakura had to cover her mouth, she almost blurted it out.

Naruto chuckled. "Why do you have to ask all the questions?"

"Huh?"

Naruto scratched his head with one hand. "I meant why do you have to ask all the questions about me? Why can't I ask you about….you?"

"Oh… w-w-well I-I-I guess you could," stuttered out a flustered Sakura. _He is really nice._

"What are you dreams?" Sakura stopped cold. She looked over at the hooded Kit. She was not ready for this kind of question. She though he would ask how old she was or maybe what she does in Konoha, anything else but…what her dreams were? What were her dreams? She already is one of the best medical ninja in the world thanks to Tsunade. But her other dreams? She never really thought about them too much. They have not really changed since she really wanted to be a ninja. She wanted Team 7 back together. But once again, as fate would have it, brought her right back to the blond idiot who once was one of the biggest things in her life. She missed him. Once he died, she lost direction and purpose. But, as life would have it, he still inspired her to keep on with life. His death brought her something that she never would have seen coming.

His strength. His will. His drive.

She promised him and herself she would bring Sasuke back. But beyond that? Well she always had wanted to be with Sasuke, romantically. However after everything that happened, she did not think it would ever happen. It had _always_ been _Sasuke_. No other option. She had always imagined getting married and having kids. With Sasuke. The dream, is what is was. Just a dream. So what did she dream about nowadays? The answer was obvious…

"…I really don't one," admitted Sakura.

"What?" gasped an astonished Naruto. "Everyone has a dream!"

"Well, I don't," countered Sakura a tad downhearted. This only spurred Naruto to make her happy.

"Why not?" Maybe he can reason her to happiness.

Sakura sat silently for a few long heartbeats before explaining. "Well I did once have a dream. Now that is just a distant memory. You see I used to be part of a team. There were four of us. Our team leader was a jonin, you might have heard of him, Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Cat ninja. He was our sensei. Then we had the top of the class, the prodigy. Sasuke Uchiha. He was just amazing at everything that he tried, and made it look easy. He is so powerful. Then there was obviously me. But the there was one more person on our Team 7…"

Naruto was holding his breath. He knew he was coming. "Naruto Uzumaki. The runt of the group with a big mouth. Bottom of the class. But then eventually Naruto started to become…the word can only be amazing. He became a great ninja. Sasuke, became jealous, in search of more power to kill his brother Itachi, the one who committed the Uchiha Massacre, he left the village to join Orochimaru. Naruto went after him. Could not stop him. But like typical Naruto, never gave up. I became the student of Tsunade to become strong to help Naruto get Sasuke back. So we could be a family again. We worked so hard. Naruto grew so strong…"

Sakura grew silent and lowered her head. Naruto looked at her to see what was happening. He barely caught a small glistening tear falling from behind the curtain of pink hair. Sakura sniffled and used the back of her hand to dry her tears. "I'm so sorry to dump my life story on you and you to see me like this. I know this is not befitting of a ninja, but so much has happened…"

Naruto's feeling were going wild as Sakura told the story he was all too familiar with. He felt terrible making her relive all those events. "I'm so sorry…." That's all he could say. What else could he do?

"That's not the worst part…" Sakura continued. "Naruto, the dead last, the runt, the worthless one of the group, became a hero. He had just started to be admired by everyone. He was so close to accomplishing his dream of being Hokage when….when….."

Sakura burst into tears crying, covering her face with both hands. Why was she being affected so much right now? Why did all these emotions have to come back? And bursting all her emotions on some guy she met two days ago. "He's gone! He was my best friend in the world and he's gone! I miss him so much!"

Naruto was stunned by the turning events. What on earth was he supposed to do? Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to reveal himself to her. But he cannot. He did the only thing he could think of. He slowly took has hand and started to rub the top of back to try and calm her down. After a few minutes of just Sakura's sniffles and cries breaking the silence of the night, silence took back control. Sakura started to calm down.

"I'm sorry again… I don't mean to unload on you…" apologized Sakura while she brushed tears with her fingers.

"Shhh..it's ok," comforted Naruto.

"You…probably…think I'm… a nut case," choked out Sakura.

"No." admitted Naruto.

"I'm sorry," she repeated.

"You're fine."

Taking a deep breath and straightening herself up. "Every time I think about him….it's difficult."

Naruto was curious. "Tell me about him."

Sakura sniffed a few times. "He was literally my best friend. When I first met him, he was just annoying me or being in the way. But as we grew up, things changed. He grew into an amazing man who saved the entire village. I cannot imagine life without him. I would give anything to see him again."

Hearing this from the girl he has been in love with for so long made his heart swell so much, he thought it would burst. It almost sounded like she loved him. He checked himself. That could and would never happen. She was seeking Sasuke.

Naruto swallowed hard and used all his might to push out his next sentence. "Sounds like a good guy. What happened to him?"

Sakura lowered her head again and was quiet for a few seconds. "He was labeled a danger to the village and was supposed to be put to death. But, Naruto being Naruto would not go down without a fight. He used his newest and most powerful technique and got himself killed." That was hard for Sakura to say. She never really talked out it. Tsunade and Ino did their best and were great at keeping topics of conversation away from that topic.

"That's terrible," said Kit.

Sakura picker her head back up and started fumbling around her small pack that sat right above her butt. She finally found what she was looking for. What she took out made Naruto's heart stop. What she was now gazing at was the scroll that he had left for her, the day he left the village. She still had it? It's been years.

"He left this," quietly whispered Sakura. "For me. Before he left he wrote a message for me. He promised me he would come back."

"Are you mad at him for breaking that promise?" Naruto deep down felt so terrible for essentially breaking that promise to her.

"No." Naruto was shocked by that. "If could see him again…there is just so much."

Naruto uncharacteristically remained silent, letting all these emotions and thoughts sink in. So she was not mad. That was such a relief to Naruto. Naruto was not scared of many things, but he, for the longest time did not want to return for a few reasons. One of the top reason was seeing Sakura. Of course he wanted to see her again but he was afraid of her reaction. It most likely involved her fist and his face. It was okay though. She was a medic, he would be fine.

"I think he is lucky to have a friend like you." Naruto had no idea why he said that but it just came out. Maybe it was his subconscious trying to help calm her or maybe remind her that she was not alone and she was an amazing person but either way. He said it.

"Had." Sakura corrected. "But thank you….for listening."

"It's my pleasure," smiled Naruto from under the hood.

"So what about you?" Sakura turned the tables on Kit.

"What about me?" asked Naruto a tad bit uncomfortable.

Sakura chuckled, "I just spilled basically my life to you, the least you can do is give me something to work with. You know, anything you can tell me at least."

Naruto was very hesitant. Really anything he said to her could give him away. He could not do that. Not yet. Naruto had to think, and think very hard. Something he usually was not very good at. However, Sakura had other things in mind.

"So what village are you from?"

Naruto had to lie. "I…can't tell you."

"Why not?"

Kit sighed. "You may not like the answer."

"Oh, but still, what can you tell me about you?" Sakura asked, trying to find some avenue to connect on.

"I like to train."

Sakura sweat dropped. _Well I guess that's better than nothing._ "Training for what?"

Naruto knew she was trying anything to get more information out of him. He would oblige, but only for her. For now. "Anything really. Taijutsu, Ninjustu, I try genjutsu but I'm terrible at it. I want to be as strong as possible, not for power itself, but to protect those I care most about."

"Like your team?"

Kit nodded. "They are just a few."

"The unnamed village you come from?" Asked Sakura with a little stab at him for not sharing some of his past.

"Many people there as well," Naruto nodded again.

"What about that girl?" asked Sakura using one of her hands to rest her head on while looking at Kit to judge his reactions.

Kit flinched a little, and to his own dismay, Sakura caught the response. She had him now. Had a little weakness from him. Little did she know, the girl was herself. "What about her?"

"Since you can't tell me about you, tell me about her, maybe I can help you get you to notice her," the young medical ninja adjusted herself cross legged facing Kit so she could focus completely on him. Naruto felt a tad uncomfortable. He was not used to this kind of attention from his old comrade.

"Trust me, I don't think there is anything you can help me with the whole situation," admitted Naruto. Just the ironic situation where Sakura wants to give advice for Naruto toward herself made Naruto chuckle.

Sakura slapped Kit on the shoulder, not finding what was so funny. "Hey, I'm trying to help you here! Do you like this girl or not?"

"I love her!" responded the hooded Naruto. He would have felt more embarrassed if he did not have the hood hiding his now red face. In fact, if he did not have the hood, Naruto may not have been able to tell her at all. Writing it to her in a letter was easy, telling her in person, that was a different beast all together.

"Then this should be easy for you," stated the pink haired girl. "You should go and tell her!"

Kit looked over at her and Sakura could almost imagine the face Kit was giving her. "As I told you before it's a little more complicated than that."

Kit looked back out at the forest to do what he was really doing out here in the first place, keeping watch.

"So basically you're in love with a girl who is in love with someone else?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. How he loved to be reminded all the time that the girl only sitting a few inches away from him was completely unreachable. "Yea, that's the idea."

"You need to get her to notice you," stated Sakura.

"How?" Naruto was just a bit curious.

"What are you good at?" Sakura asked.

"Being a ninja…" sounded Naruto almost as if he was guessing.

When Kit didn't continue an air of almost awkwardness that settled between the two. _I guess that's all he knows._ "Ok…well…what does she like?'

Naruto snorted. "She likes him."

Sakura was quiet and still for a few heart beats before..

 _Wham!_

The pink haired beauty whacked her fist over Kit's head in a fit of tiny rage.

"YOU BAKA! I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU!" screamed Sakura while shaking her fist.

Kit jumped up and into a defensive stance. Sakura suddenly remembered what she just did and slapped both hands over her mouth in horror. "OH MY…..I am so sorry!"

Kit sat down and did not say anything. Sakura was still, gazing at him waiting for his response. She had not called anyone 'baka' since…him. She couldn't bring herself to call anyone else. Little did she know he was having his own little battle in his head. She had called him 'baka'. He missed that. It had been years since he had last heard that from her. The pain he could live without, but that was Sakura for you. A live firecracker of a girl. Yet, she had a sensitive and loving side. Only a select few have experienced this Sakura but it made everything worth it.

"It's ok Sakura," said Naruto. In truth the pain, sometimes even when the hit was chakra enhanced, did not hurt Naruto much or long. That was thanks to his furry friend. "It doesn't hurt."

Sakura was a little surprised. Being surprised just had to be a thing with this guy. "Not at all?"

"Nope."

Sakura felt a little awkward now. She did not know why. "So… what is she like?"

Naruto was very hesitant. If he said anything, it could give him away and might just even creep her out about how just similar this girl was to her. Oh well. This may be the one chance he would have to talk about her like this. Should he take it? He would dive head long into battle with no second thought, yet trying to say a few words to his longtime team mate and crush, he was beyond nervous. That is not weird. Right?

"She is…." The words died on Naruto's lips because he was trying to force them. Taking a shuddered breath, he continued. "She is everything. She is perfect. Yea, everyone has their flaws and they are imperfect, but those also what make her perfect. She is kind... with a heart to match anyone's when she cares. She is passionate, sometimes losing herself in those emotions, but that just shows how much she really does care, even if she doesn't show it or admit it. Her intellect, can give even geniuses a run for their money. One of her stronger points, no pun intended, is her strength unmatched in every way the word can be used. Physically, emotionally…" Naruto let the rest of the word die on his lips, he was unsure if he should continue. He could not see her face because of his hood, but she had not stopped him or said anything so he took a leap of faith and continued. "She is the most beautiful girl I have ever met. I would do anything to see her smile, to hear her laugh, to just see her happy. Just her scent is so intoxicating, even if she has just gone through an entire mission without showering." Naruto chuckled, and he heard her chuckle as well. "And let me tell you her eyes… man, I could just get lost and drown in them, and be perfectly happy with that. Like endless fields of beauty and love…."

Naruto had to stop himself now, if he said much more he might give both her and himself away. So he waited for her to say something. After a few seconds of hearing nothing form the pinkette, he turned slightly to look at her. Her eyes were wide and both hands covered her mouth. The way she was looking at him. Did he say too much? He started to panic when she finally spoke.

"That was so cute!" she exclaimed! Inside she was all war and fuzzy from just the way he was talking about this girl. At the same time, she felt lonely. She wished she had a guy like that chasing after her. She felt almost jealous of this girl and was wondering why this girl, whoever she was, could not see that this obviously amazing guy was chasing her.

"Was it?" asked Kit. "I was just saying what I thought of her." He was being completely truthful with that. Every word. He did not even know he could do cute.

"Oh yea!" admitted Sakura.

"How though?" Naruto was a tad confused about it. About girls. Shocker.

Sakura shifted her position so she was a bit closer to Kit. "It was one of the cutest things I have ever heard. It was cute because it was from you, and only you and your heart. You obvious meant every word of that. That's why it was so cute."

Naruto thought about it for…a little longer than he should have. "So cute is honest?"

Sakura chuckled. This guy must not know anything about girls, or relationships. "Well kind of…girls like honesty, but cute is where you do something and it is meant from the bottom of your heart and the girl can't help but be impressed. Even if it's something small."

"Oh… I get it," said Naruto. He still had no idea what she was talking about.

"You don't know how to handle girls, do you?" Sakura tapped her shoulder with his.

Naruto chuckled. "I know her."

Again Sakura almost squealed from just the cuteness from this guy. "Well if you know her so well, then why haven't you said anything to her?"

Naruto sighed. "Like I said before she is in love with someone else. She is dedicated to him."

"Does he like her back?"

Naruto laughed at out for a few seconds. "He has no interest in her. None at all. And yet she still pursues him."

"Wow she seems shallow." Naruto held himself from saying anything back at that.

"But that is another thing at makes her amazing, she is dedicated, no matter what happens."

Sakura was looking at Kit off the corner of her eye. "You must really be in love with this girl if you say that. Aren't you afraid of her never noticing you?"

Naruto shrugged. "Listen, nothing would make me happier than of she chose me. But at the end of the day I just want her to be happy."

Sakura was unusually quiet at this statement. She was having her own little battle in her head, Kit's story had similarities to her. But from another point of view.

"Do you think…" Sakura started to say but then let her sentence fade off. Naruto looked her direction wondering why she stopped. She looked deep in thought as she stared at the ground.

In an attempt to get her to talk Naruto tried pushing her along. "Do I think what?"

At the sound of his voice she look at Kit. "Do you think you will ever be happy?"

Naruto was not quite expecting the question. "What do you mean?"

"Do you think you will ever find happiness? With her, or maybe someone else?"

Naruto was not prepared for that kind of question. It had always been Sakura. Never anyone else. It was one of his dreams to maybe one day impress her and be with her. He was working so hard for so long that he had never really stopped and thought about it. He wanted to bring Sasuke home, he wanted to be Hokage….but his priorities have shifted. What about the pinkette sitting next to him? He would move the world for her. But is she still in the picture?

Naruto stood up and moved away a few feet before letting his thoughts sink in. the turned at looked at the seated Sakura looking at him with interest. "I dream that one day everyone will find true happiness. I just want the same for her. And one day maybe I will be that reason."

A noise behind Sakura made her turn around to see Red and Neji walking toward them.

"Shift change," stated Neji.

Naruto had to hold in a chuckle. This was going to be a very quiet shift with those two watching.

The pink haired girl and the cloaked blond walked back into the cave.

"Thank you." Sakura looked over to Kit.

"Thank you for what?" asked the confused Sakura.

"For being you and for being the amazing person you are."

Sakura stopped in shock and watched as kit crawled into his bed and roll away from her and seemingly passed out. Did he just compliment her? And why? She felt...good. It had been a long time since she heard a compliment like that. Did he like her? That was impossible. They had only known each other for a few days. She had an impulse to go and see who is under that hood but her training told her different. That could immediate make one pissed off Kit and then the rest of the Blue Flame. If they were half as powerful as she thought they were the Konoha would be in trouble.

Finally Sakura laid down in her own sleeping bag. Tomorrow was going to be a long day she might as well as get some sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

HELLO EVERYONE! I am finally back! I am terribly sorry about taking so long. I have been very busy. Do me a small favor and Keep my friend Alex in your thoughts and prayers, she is going through a lot. Very difficult time. Anyways, I know everyone wants me to update sooner. I do too! My schedule is very busy. I am starting to coach middle school basketball, so time is more restricted. Writer's block sucks too. ugh kill me. BUT IM BACK! I saw your questions and ALOT of you will find out the answers soon. Maybe not this chapter but next...or that one after that...idk. But no more waiting...ON WITH THE SHOW.

Remember, life is precious. Don't waste it. Give a hug. Love. Don't focus on the negative. Be positive. LOVE YOU!

The sun shone through the tree leaves in the early morning as two rogue Chunin were doing their patrol around their camp. They had settled down for only two days to keep the major villages off their tails. Toma, the brown haired one, hailed from the village Hidden in the Stone. He left because he loved money, and joining up with this little group to do just that. They made a lot of money. They had an employer, they did not know who it was, nor did they care. The employer paid very handsomely. And their mission was simple. Wreak havoc and still more money. No matter what they got more money. And that was alright in Toma's book.

Toma's partner, Manato, groaned beside him as they stopped on a small path. "Why does Daiki have us running patrols _this_ early?"

Toma rolled his shoulders. "I don't know but it doesn't matter."

Manato crossed his arms. "Unlike you, I had a little fun last night."

"Oh?" Toma was interested. "Did she put up a fight?"

An evil chuckled came from Manato. "Oh did she ever. I love them feisty."

"I might take a crack at one of our trophies a little bit la-"

I small _snap_ in the woods made Toma stop talking mid-sentence. Both rogues dropped into an attack stance, almost back to back and started scanning around them with their eyes and senses. Toma could not feel and chakra signatures out there, but his ninja training kept him in high alert. His eyes darting back and forth looking at any movement. He did not see anything.

He wanted to check with Manato. "You see anything?"

Silence as his only response. Why was Manato not responding?

"Manato?" Toma looked over his shoulder only to start shaking in fear.

Between him and Manato was a white cloaked figure standing evenly, facing him. One arm on the figure was held out that led to kunai. A kunai, which was lodged in the back of Manato's neck.

Before Toma could move or do anything he felt his body jerk suddenly and all the air rush out of his lungs. Looking down, he found a kunai in his chest. The ninja who stabbed him also had a white cloak on. That was the last thing he saw before everything went permanently dark.

Naruto, Red, and the Konoha team watched from above as the cloaked Guren and Yukimaru easily disposed of the two rogues. Naruto had to admit, most would rule Yukimaru out as being a ninja. Truth be told, especially paired with Guren, he made a great ninja. A tad blissful maybe, but a ninja.

Naruto also knew that Shikamaru and Neji were watching their movements like hawks to find anything they can. Their analysis of the Blue Flame would be relayed back to Danzo in a very detailed report. Naruto smirked. If Danzo wanted knowledge, Naruto would give him some. It may not be what the old war hawk wants, but he is still going to get it.

Sakura was astounded at the accuracy and the sheer speed of the Blue Flame. To top it all off they were silent. That was a very scary combination. Even for ninja they were good. More than good. Easily some of the best Sakura has ever seen. Plus her mind was still reeling from last night with Kit. Everything he said. She just felt this unusual connection with some guy she never met. Or even has seen! What is wrong with her? She had to keep focused on the mission and maybe after they can have a good conversation of what he was not telling her. She was going to find out. Even if she had to put him in traction first. Who says fists don't solve anything. Sakura's fists would disagree.

Crys and Three lowered the bodies of the now dead rogues to the ground. The rest of their expedition jumped to the ground to investigate the bodies. Shikamaru and Red stepped forward and knelt to check the bodies for any information.

As the team stood and watched the two look over the bodies, Naruto spoke up. "Just like the report said, they were about mid Chunin level."

Neji nodded in agreement. "It would make sense if a majority of they were the same strength."

"Maybe a few stronger ones," Guren pointed out.

"Yes, they would have to have some sort of leader that was strong behind them," Sakura agreed.

Naruto looked around the area to just get a feel of it all. He was using it as a distraction.

 _Do you feel them out there_? Naruto asked his furry tenant. He was asking about the ROOT agents that had been following them since they left the Hidden Leaf.

 ** _They are keeping their distance._** Kurama informed.

 _Probably because I sensed them all those years ago. They learn fast._

The Nine Tails propped himself up a bit in the mindscape. **_Do you think they suspect it is you?_**

Naruto crossed his arms. _I doubt it._

Kurama rose to his full height stretching himself out. It had been some times since he had been out, he felt a little stiff. **_We need to keep a close eye on that. We cannot have them figure it all out before the others have finished._**

 _Right._ Naruto came out of this thoughts to see Sakura, Shikamaru, and Guren walking up to him.

"So we found a map that may lead us to where they are currently staying," informed Shikamaru.

"It's about ten kilometers southwest of here," Guren concluded.

Naruto's only response was the slow nod of his head. Believe it or not, Naruto was capable of deep thought and analysis, even if he can be dense sometimes. Behind those playful bright playful eyes, could be a completely clueless idiot or someone who just had a complete understanding of everything. At this current moment Naruto was thinking about this group of rogues they were sent to eliminate. Something was off.

Naruto wondered how the other team was doing. He should be getting a message from them soon….

THE PREVIOUS DAY IN KONOHA!

Itachi opened his Sharingan eyes to look down into the village to see Naruto look at him and give him a sight nod.

It was time.

"The operation has begun."

The Blue Flame disappeared, leaving Itachi on the Hokage Monument. He sighed. At long last, the first steps were begin taken. He had his job to do.

Making a single hand sign, Itachi disappeared from sight. He reappeared behind the rest of the Blue Flame. They were in the shadows of a large, but inconspicuous building at the foot of the Hokage monument. A large member of the Blue Flame had both his large hands on the wall, his eyes closed in concentration. Itachi waited patiently for his to finish his scans.

The large figure turned to Itachi. "Very few guards, just like you expected."

Itachi nodded. "Thank you, Gozu." The big man nodded in return. "Ok spilt up, just like we planned. You have four minutes to be at the rendezvous point. If you are five seconds too late, you will be spotted and we will be in for the fight of our lives. "

"Relax Itachi. We will be fine," stated another female member of the Blue Flame. Itachi had mixed feeing about the declaration. He liked to positive attitude. The cockiness, however could get someone killed. Itachi sighed quietly. She can be so brash sometimes.

Waiting a few heart beats, Itachi collected his thoughts and chakra. "Execute."

The Blue Flame disappeared. Itachi ran at full force with Konan and the brash member ran around the building to a side entrance. Itachi with his back to the wall took one side of the door, Konan and the other member to the other side. The Uchiha nodded to Konan. Kneeling in front of the door, Konan used one of her fingers to form a key with her papers. Within seconds they were in. They made their way silently through the complicated passage way of the building to the next level. Their goal was the security room. Along the way, they took out two ROOT ANBU guards with relative ease. They had the element of surprise on their side. Plus, the whole village was focused on Naruto and his team.

Konan took the lead as they crept to their target. Peering into the room, she saw only three ANBU watching many monitors for any movements. They had to be taken out quickly. The one hard part is doing it without killing them. Naruto had ordered them not to kill anyone. No exceptions.

Konan raised her hand with two fingers raised. Itachi and the brash member tensed, ready to pounce. Pointing her fingers forward the three Blue Flame members burst into the room. Itachi got to his target first. The ROOT did not even have time to react before Itachi quickly jabbed him in the neck, knocking him out. Konan used her paper to wrap the mouth of her target. Using only one arm she chocked her target into the blackness of unconsciousness.

However. She had to be different. That must be why she gets along with Naruto so well. In her infinite wisdom she wanted to play with her food a bit. Side stepping around a down strike, she twirled around to behind her prey before jumping on him from behind, choking him into submission.

Itachi and Konan were standing over their fallen targets when the final member struggled to her feet.

"That was reckless," Konan stated.

The response Konan got was, quite typical. "Humph. I took him out didn't I?"

And, of course, Konan already had a counter. "Yes, at the expense and risk of the mission and our lives."

Before a word could come out of the brash one's mouth Itachi spoke up leaving no room for negotiation. "We are on the mission now. Let's get it done."

Konan immediately nodded understanding his orders. Of course, there had to be a rebel. "Ugh…fine. Could have more fun if we…"

Itachi sighed. Why did he have to be stuck with such hard headed people? "We have ninety seconds to be at the rendezvous."

The other two nodded in response. The three white cloaked figures disappeared from sight leaving their prey on the floor. Eighty seconds and two patrols later, they arrived at their destination. Konan already got to work on a set of heavy double doors. The brash member of their organization was antsy kept looking around.

"Where is the other team?" she asked.

As if on cue Gozu and his team appeared right when Konan opened the door. "We're in."

The Blue Flame filed quickly into the room. Konan closed the door behind them. They stood in a large room with rows upon rows of shelved scrolls. This is one of the places where the elders of the village locked away the villages most prized scrolls and jutsus.

Itachi walked passed rows of rows of scrolls. He was ignoring them all. Their true goal was on the other side of the room. He stopped in front of seal covered double doors. Two members of the Blue Flame flanked Itachi on both sides. Glancing at both of them, Itachi nodded.

"Ready?" The other two nodded. "Remember, one wrong hand sign done at the wrong time, the entire village will know we are here."

One of flanking members scoffed. "Yea, no pressure."

Closing his eyes, Itachi took a deep breath and gathered his chakra. Starting with a ram hand sign. He waited until with other two were ready.

"Three…two…one!" The three Bur Flame members started flying through hang signs simultaneously. They had to keep doing hand signs for thirty seconds. An eternity for a ninja. This was a tense moment. Their entire operation was based on this moment. They could succeed or completely fail. Noe one else moved or said a word. Finally the last sign was made. The seals on the door slowly started to burn away into nothing. Finally the last of a multi-layered seal system burned away leaving the door fully unlocked. It may not have been heard but the Blue Flame let out sigh of relief.

A small smirk was on the face of Itachi as he opened the double doors. Finally, things can really get going. The Blue Flame entered the room and everyone started going off to do their assigned jobs. They each had a set of scrolls to find. With these scrolls in their possession, their plans would accelerate. They first had to be returned to their rightful owner.

A few minutes passed before Itachi felt something. Just a tiny thing off. Could easily be passed over as nerves or something insignificant. But this is Itachi. He knew better. Slowly making his way out of the room, he spoke to no one on the way out.

Konan noticed this and hissed at him. "Itachi where are you going?"

Itachi did not respond as he closed the door behind him.

Another member of the Blue Flame looked at Konan. "It's Itachi. Let him take care of it. Maybe it's a random patrol."

Everyone felt at tad uneasy about their mission leader sudden disappearing without a word. Despite this little deviation from the plan, they had to complete their mission. A few minutes later the door opened again. Itachi came back through.

"Where did you go?" Konan asked.

Itachi just shrugged. "Met with an old friend."

Even with hoods covering their faces Itachi knew that they were all wide eyed at what he had said.

"WE WERE DISCOVERED?" shouted another Blue Flame member.

Itachi actually lightly chuckled. "No. He was invited." The rest of the Blue Flame looked around at each other in complete confusion. There was an unknown member of the Blue Flame? If not, then who could be so important that they were let in on one of the biggest secrets?

"Does not matter," the Uchiha stated, "We need to finish the mission Kit assigned us."

Everyone nodded and returned to gathering what items were requested.

Thirty minutes later, the last of the wanted items were sealed away in large scrolls. The large scrolls where now safely attached to the back of each Blue Flame member.

Itachi watched carefully as each member was double checking their lists. Konan was helping the large Gozu with his list. The big man could not read things written that small. Now half the battle was finished. Now came the hard part, getting out of the village with some of their most sensitive and precious scrolls. This would deal a severe blow to the village and Danzo. At least they would not be in Danzo's hands anymore.

Itachi led the team to the door. In about five minutes they would either have been seen by the Leaf or well on their way to freedom.

BACK IN PRESENT DAY

Naruto turn to see Sakura studying him. He smiled under the hood and almost let slip his favorite pet name for her. He was close but caught himself.

"Sakura, what do you think our next step should be?" Sakura was a little caught off guard with being put on the spot. She really needs to learn to just be not surprised about how surprised she always got with Kit and the Blue Flame. Thinking all that almost had her head hurt.

"What do you mean?" asked the pinked hair medic. Was this not the reason they were all here? To take out the rogues? That sounds funny considering they were currently working with rogues. Ironic? Her life seemed to be filled with situations that were ironic, even if she did not know most of them.

Kit crossed his arms almost in irritation as he started to explain. "Yes, we are here to eliminate them. But why are they here? Aren't you curious in the least?" He looked around at Sakura and Shikamaru. The Leaf ninja looked at each other as they thought about what Kit said. The rest of the group had made their way over and was listening at this point. "Listen, take it from us, no amount of ninja are here like this unless it is for a really good reason."

"Maybe they are just looking for some quick money from defenseless people." Kiba chimed in.

A small snort came from Guren under the hood. Naruto spared her a look and went on. "What is in this region?" Naruto asked the group at large.

Kiba being Kiba, of course had to answer like a smart guy. "A bunch of villages."

Naruto stared down is old canine friend. "Yes. Spotted smaller villages, with barely enough money for themselves. If these guys wanted to hit it big there is a palace south of here. May take time to get there, but the pay would be significantly higher. Or they could go into the Land of Wind. Even amongst the five great nation they are wealthy."

The Konoha ninja looked at each other. Shikamaru had his bent finger on his chin in thought. "You make some interesting points. They should warrant some investigation, but we were given a mission. It was elimination, not intelligence gathering. They were our orders and we have to follow them."

"You mean you blindly follow his orders?" Naruto hissed out. An almost evil aura started to emulate from him.

Sakura was taken back by the sudden mood change of Kit. It almost scared her.

Neji spoke up in defense. "He is our Hokage, we must follow his orders."

Kit turned his back to them so fast his cloak actually snapped in the air. "So if he ordered you to murder someone, you would do it?"

Now it was Kiba's turn. "Of course!"

With arms crossed Kit slowly turned back around to stare right back at Kiba. Sakura could have sworn she saw red eyes under that hood. That aura was even stronger now. Akamaru began to whine a bit. "Even if they were innocent?"

"B-b-but they're not!" Nervously sputtered out dog breath.

Red stepped forward. "What if they were?" All the eyes of the group focused on him. The question hung in the air for a few moments while the minds of the Konoha ninjas worked. Then Naruto started to speak slowly. "What if these ninja were? What if Danzo ordered you to kill defenseless civilians?" Neji began to speak up in their defense, but Red had other ideas. "You may say that you would not do it, but let's all be honest. The fear of Danzo's wrath is too great. The innocence of those would stain your hands and your memories forever. All because of a fear of a man who's power comes from fear."

Naruto let Red hammer them with that sound logic. He watched carefully as the faces of his old comrades changed at the words and almost became pained at the wise and powerful words that Red was speaking. This was all part of the process. Hopefully, down the road, this had potential.

Waiting just a few more heart beats, Naruto decided to come to the rescue of the poor Konoha shinobi. "It's alright. We are not really judging you. You are bound by honor and a code to follow your leader. We do not fully trust him is all. Those are just some things to think about. Let's get moving if we hope to catch these rogues."

Without another word Kit turns and takes off into the trees. Slowly the rest of the Blue Flame began to follow. However Sakura was rooted to the spot. What was that all about? Was this guy bipolar or something? Why did they bring that up throw it in the Konoha Ninja's faces and then say it was fine and leave? This got Sakura thinking. What if she had to do that? So far they have not done things of that nature, but she wouldn't put it past Danzo to do it.

But why would Kit bring the topic up if he was just going to breeze past it?

Sakura heard her name being shouted. She looked up to find herself standing alone. She looked up to see Shikamaru waiting for her high in the trees. She shook her head. Now was not the time to be thinking about such things. Maybe she could interrogate him on the way home. Not wanting to waste more time, Sakura leapt into the trees and past Shikamaru to catch up with the rest of the group.

Sometime later the group arrived at the location the map indicated.

Nothing was there.

They all stood high in the trees looking over the small clearing. Shikamaru nodded at Neji.

Opening his eyes, Neji activated his blood line and scanned the area. "I detect nothing. They have been gone for some time."

Not totally trusting the Byakugan, Naruto looked over at Red to confirm. "I get the same thing."

Shikamaru glanced at Kit. "What don't trust us?"

Naruto ignored this little jab at him. "Alright, I feel like we should spread out and see if we can find any clues as to where they have gone."

"That's a good idea," agreed Sakura. "We should spilt up into team of two, pairs of one Leaf Ninja and one Blue Flame."

Naruto was smirking. "That is also a great idea."

After pairing up, Naruto made sure he was with Sakura, they all headed in different directions. They agreed to meet back up after an hour whether they found something or not. Naruto and Sakura were leaping from tree to tree at ore of a relaxed pace. They seemed to be interested in talking to each other than actually finding the rogue ninja. However, remember these are both highly trained ninja, they would never truly let their guard down on a mission. Right?

Actually, they were currently laughing at a story that Kit was telling about a mission the Blue Flame had taken on to retrieve a kidnapped baby prince.

"…then if that wasn't bad enough, he peed on Crys when he was on her shoulders." Laughed out Kit.

Sakura went into another fit of laughter. Kit was funny and friendly and outgoing. Sakura was finding it hard to believe he was part of an organization similar to the Akatsuki. This guy was full of life, there was no way he could be a hardened man always on the run from multiple Great Nations.

"You guys to seem to have a lot of great adventures."

Naruto shrugged. "We do travel the world, taking on missions. Plus, things just happen to us. Almost all the time."

Sakura looked over at Kit. "Do you guys take only certain kinds of missions?"

"Yea we only take on ones that we know when will get a bunch of bodily fluids on us." Whether or not that was supposed to be a joke or he was being serious, it was funny to Sakura. Especially after the story he just told. She sent a playful swat his way.

"You know what I mean! Why do you only take certain missions?"

Naruto wanted to tease her with a bit more information, as per the plan. "To be fully honest with you, we use are missions for different reasons. To make some money is only one reason, but then sometimes we find out the area we would be sent on the mission is close to an area that we need information from. Or we may need to build some strength in that area. Those are just a few reasons."

Sakura was nodding as Kit told her his explanation. It all made a lot of sense. She knew he was not being completely honest, but she still knew he was telling her the truth. Sakura wished they were at the point they could share everything with each other. But she had to have patience. That day would come soon she hoped.

They fell into a comfortable silence as they looked around for evidence of the rogue group. A few minutes later they had slowed their pace because they both had a funny feeling.

As Naruto bounded off another branch he noticed a slight glimmer off the corner of his eye. Without hesitation, he landed on another branch, finding Sakura mid-leap between branches, he leaped straight at her.

Sakura could not find any sign of anything when suddenly off the corner of her eye she saw Kit make a quick movement change, coming straight at her at an insane speed. So many thoughts were going through her head. Was Kit betraying them now that she was by herself with no chance of rescue or backup? This had to be part of their plan from the beginning. But she was doomed. In training they were taught a traveling ninja was their most vulnerable in the air between jumps. They were taught to make lots of smaller jumps to minimize the chances of getting caught off guard and maximizes the ability to change directions easily. Unfortunately she had been too comfortable with Kit and let her guard down. Now she will pay for the mistake.

With her life.

The only thing she had time to do was put her arms up in an attempt to protect herself. The expected feeling of a weapon for jutsu never came as Kit tackled her mid-air at full force. She felt his arms tighten around her, keeping her from escaping. Her eyes widened in shock. She was close enough to almost see into Kit's hood. But the thing that surprised her was she though she saw a few strand of golden hair briefly escape the dark hood. She heard him exhale. Suddenly and explosion happened behind Kit. Debris and kunai flew out of the fire at dangerous speeds.

The combined mass of Kit and Sakura was flung even farther thanks to the shock wave, landing them on the ground. Hard. After rolling for twenty feet and rolling apart they both came to a stop. Sakura's ears were ringing and her body now ached. Disoriented, Sakura slowly turned over, trying to lift her body up. She saw Kit, he was face down, not moving.

Blinking many times to get the black spots out, Sakura started painfully crawling towards the downed Kit. As she got closer, her medical training automatically kicked in. She did a quick look over of Kit. Not seeing any real red blotches on the white coat, she assumed he was relatively uncut and not bleeding dangerously. When she reached him, she patted herself down to check for any serious injuries. She did not find any. She felt kind of good for almost being blown up. Kit must have taken most of the force of the blast. Again, going on instinct and training, Sakura reached over to roll Kit over.

Before she touched him, she froze. The gravity of the current situation hit her harder than one of her master's earth shattering punches. She was in a perfect position to find out who Kit's real identity was. The faceless man would now have a face and a name. Should she betray what thin trust she had with the Kit and the mysterious organization? Just a few moments ago she had though Kit was going to betray her, yet was trying to save her. A girl he did not even know. He was willing to give his life for her.

Sakura stayed her hand. Instead of rolling him over she shook him instead. Ironic for the medical expert to do the least medical thing.

"Hey, you okay?" Sakura asked hoping he heard her.

Kit did not move. So Sakura shook him a little harder and spoke a bit louder. "Hey! You okay?"

He still did not stir. Sakura got impatient. "WAKE UP BAKA!" She slams her fist over his head. Kit awoke with a start.

Blinking the black spots out of his own eyes, Naruto groaned in pain. He felt Kurama push extra chakra through his body, healing any and all injuries. He was just rudely awoken with a massive pain on the back of his head. Using his barely responded arms, Naruto was pushed himself into a sitting position, groaning the whole way. Using his left hand he rubbed the growing lump on the back of his head. Naruto opened one eye to peer at Sakura. Judging by the held up, clenched fist of Sakura, she woke him up like only Sakura would.

"Do you always have to hit so hard?" Kit asked.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "What was that?" she growled.

Normally, Naruto would be scared of the pink haired vixen sitting in front of him. However, one of his favorite hobbies is pushing people's buttons. He did it to her out of love. Even if she sometimes scared him to the point of crapping in his pants. He looked over and repeated. "Do you always have to hit so hard?"

Sakura is usually used to getting most of everything she wants by being a tad threatening backed with bigger than life bite. Then fact even after her infamous growl, this dude was not scared. This shook her out of her mad spell. "Oh…sorry."

Naruto began to shakily stand up. Only half way he became very wobbly. His body was still not responding correctly. As he began to fall back down, he felt a firm, yet gentle grip of a slender arm around him. He looked down into the jade eyes of life time crush. She was using her arm to hold his frame up. Naruto smiled under the hood.

That was Sakura. Strong, yet gentle and tough.

"Thanks," grunted Naruto.

Sakura shook her head. "No! I should be thanking you!" She lowered her head. Took a second then looked back into the dark hood of Kit. "You saved my life."

Naruto did not think much of it. "Yea, I guess I did."

Sakura almost dead panned at the almost non caring response she received. Hey, let us not pretend that they were almost killed! This guy acted on pure instinct. His only action was saving her. They were not even squad mates and he put everything on the line for her. It made her wonder at what he would do with someone he really cared for…

"We have to head back," pained out Naruto. "We have to tell the others."

The pink haired human crutch nodded in agreement. Using her weight, Sakura turned her and her new patient in the direction they came. There was no need to search further without back up. Plus the traps would lead the way to the rogues. Whether the traps where there to slow them down, or were just there as added security, this gave their position away. Good for the team. Bad for the rogues.

Half an hour passed as the two made their way back. Even though they took their sweet time on the way out, they were currently way slower now. They would not make it back in time to meet with their teams, they hoped their teams would come looking for them. Until then, they were simply enjoying their time alone together like they were on the way out.

Naruto was actually fine. Kurama had seen to that. He was enjoying this small little physical interaction with his long time crush. Secretly, she was enjoying it too. There were a few points where he non-verbally told her he could walk just fine. She refused to let him go. For whatever reason, she wanted to make sure he was completely fine before he did something strenuous, like killing rogue ninjas.

"Our squads should be meeting up right about now," stated the medic ninja turned human walking stick.

"Yea," acknowledged Kit. "How long do you think it will take them to figure out to head this way."

Sakura shrugged. "Not long, I think. I usually am right on time."

"Yea, I am usually early," admitted Naruto.

Sakura nodded. "My old sensei was _always_ late. I try not to follow in his footsteps that way."

Naruto chuckled. "What, always being somewhat fashionably late was not one of his important lessons?"

Sakura laughed. "No. He is the reason I despise being late."

"Seems to me he trained a really good ninja," pointed out Naruto. He was really just trying to compliment her.

The kunoichi's shoulders were shaking from her chuckling. "Not really. Yes, I did learn a lot under him and he did teach us goo lessons, but most of my training was under My Lady, Tsunade."

"Yea, I know." Naruto responded. "You have made quite a name for yourself under her."

Sakura looked up at the hooded man she was holding. She was known? "I have?"

Naruto nodded. "Oh yes. The infamous Lady Tsunade took an apprentice. She, meaning you, was rumored to be stronger than Tsunade herself. It was said you could destroy almost an entire mountain in one punch. And to top it all off, your medical knowledge most likely surpasses your master's as well."

Sakura blushed pink at what she was hearing. She did not know she could be that famous.

"Where did you hear all this?" She was curious.

"Here and there," Naruto said. "Our spy networks pick things up, and along our travels. And I will admit, I did want to meet you."

Sakura was taken back. Again. He had wanted to meet her? "Y-you did?" Sakura stuttered out.

Naruto had to force himself not to keep looking at her to make her feel even more uncomfortable. He nodded. "I wanted to see if those rumors were true."

Sakura had no idea what to say. She did not think she could ever be that famous, ever. She was just working hard to become the best she could. Who knew she would ever make a name for herself.

"I can't wait to see you in action."

Sakura tried being a step ahead. "I want to see you in action." She had a playful smirk on her.

Naruto chuckled. "Still want more information?"

Before Sakura could make a smart comment back, Kit suddenly stopped. He looked into the direction they were walking. "We are about to have company."

Sakura's body went into high alert, ready to move at any second. "Are they our teams?"

Sakura was looking into the dark hood of Kit anxiously waiting for his response. Waiting after a few heartbeats the answer was summed up in one word.

"Hide."

In the blink of an eye Sakura disappeared into the nearest large bush, laying low to minimize being seen. She acted so quickly she did not see where Kit disappeared to. She knew he was hidden because she did not see him where they just were. To help not be found, Sakura calmed and slowed her breathing to the point even she could not hear it. Difficult to do in most situations when the heart is racing fast.

Suddenly she heard the sudden ruffling of leaves. Looking up she saw four sets of combat boots hit the ground just mere feet from where she was hiding. Those were definitely not Konoha standard issue.

"We have to hurry," spoke a harsh voice. "Those ninja are approaching fast."

"Do you think our trap killed them?"

"Doesn't matter. Now let's move before they find us."

Four pairs of feet took off, out of Sakura's view. She let out a held breath. There was no doubt she could take them, but she needed them to remain alive to lead them back to the main group. Slowly she made her way out of her hiding spot. Standing she dusted herself off and started looking around for Kit. He was nowhere to be found.

"Kit!" Sakura called.

She heard a noise behind her. She turned slightly to see Kit standing behind her. How did he get behind her without her noticing?

Kit bent down and picked something up from the ground and quickly put in a pouch on his thigh.

"You ok?" Kit asked.

Sakura became fully aware of how close he was when she looked up at him and into that hood. Parts of his face were lit up by the shinning sun. She was amazed at how he still was able to keep his face hidden. Secretly she was imagining at what Kit's face may look like. He had to be cute. She would bet a year's pay on that. Is it weird she feels slightly attracted to a man she has only know for a few days and have never seen? No. she had to keep herself in check. Even if he did seem to be an amazing guy.

She could barely make out the color of what seemed to be bright cerulean color eyes. Sakura was astounded. If that really was his eye color, his eyes seemed to glow on their own. The pink haired girl started to feel some heat at her cheeks now that she was imagining the intense gaze of this mysterious guy upon her.

"Y-y-yea, that just took me by surprise is all," Sakura stuttered out. Oh gosh, she was turning into Hinata. Over this guy! She mentally face palmed herself. She had to straighten herself out. Distraction. That was always a good tactic. "How did you manage to sense them?" OK, too much on him…again. "I did not see them coming at all."

Naruto chuckled almost a small evil laugh. "That's a secret, Sakura-chan." Both blonde and pink haired ninja eyes were the size of dinner plates.

Naruto was kicking himself. He let slip that honorific too easily. He was getting good at not calling her that. It was a dead giveaway of who he was. He had let his guard down. Always and only for her. His stupid little mistake could blow everything right here right now. Why did he have to be so stupid, especially around her?

On the other side Sakura's mind stopped and was full tilt all at the same time. He called her Sakura-chan. No one has called her that since…..him. Why did it all have to point back to him? So many emotions and thoughts came falling hard upon her. She wanted to cry. The tears built up at the edges of her eyes when both heard movement onto their sides.

Training kicked in and both had kunai at the ready to defend themselves when three white cloaks burst from the tree tops to come to a stop ten feet in front of them. Naruto relaxed at the arrival of him teammates. A second later the Konoha ninja arrived.

"What happened to you?" Red asked. Naruto rolled his eyes under his hood. Of course Red would notice first.

"Had a little run in with a trap," explained Naruto.

"And lost," Guren chuckled out.

Naruto crossed his arms and growled unhappily. He hated being made fun of. Something he learned to despise when he was a kid.

Sakura, thankfully, can to his rescue. "He saved my life though." Everyone looked at Sakura. The Blue Flame were not surprised, Konoha was. "I did not see it but he saw a trap and got between me and the explosion."

Guren walked over and put an arm over Naruto's shoulders. "I knew it had it in you, you lady killer you."

Naruto ignored her little stab at him by brushing her off him. "Moving on to why we are here, Sakura and I saw a few of the rogues pass by us a few minutes ago. We can just follow them. You all ready to get this mission really on the way?"

The smirks all around were evidence of a yes. Everyone was excited to have some real fun.

Naruto turned around to the directions the rogues disappeared to.

"Let's go."


	8. Chapter 8

Hey everyone! I know it took me such a long time to get this one up. I am in the middle of basketball season. I am the coach so there is more than just practices and games. I have so much going on. But with the holidays there should be more time for me sit a just write. which I plan to do just for you guys!

Thank you guys so much for the support, you all are amazing! Because of you, this story is much more popular than I could ever have hoped. But lets make it more popular shall we? Tell your friends, family, random strangers, ANYONE! Thank you all so much.

Just a tid bit for you. No mater what is going on in life, life ALWAYS gets better! I promise you, there is NOTHING you cannot handle. You can get through it, and be better because of it!

I love you all!

ENJOY!

THE PREVIOUS DAY IN KONOHA….

 _Itachi watched carefully as each member was double checking their lists. Konan was helping the large Gozu with his list. The big man could not read things written that small. Now half the battle was finished. Now came the hard part, getting out of the village with some of their most sensitive and precious scrolls. This would deal a severe blow to the village and Danzo. At least they would not be in Danzo's hands anymore._

 _Itachi led the team to the door. In about five minutes they would either have been seen by the Leaf or well on their way to freedom…._

Itachi raised his fist in the air. A patrol was walking by in a few seconds. They needed to wait until they passed. No one spoke as the patrol passed right on the other side of the door. Itachi counted in his head.

Just three more seconds.

The footsteps of the guards passed and Itachi gave the one handed signal. The door burst open and the Blue Flame flew out of the room at top speed. Using the same route they took in, they followed back to the door they entered. Itachi calculated less than ten percent chance of them getting actually caught.

"Someone is coming," muttered Gozu behind Itachi.

Raising his fist, Itachi and the rest of the Blue Flame skidded to a halt at a cross section.

"Where?"

"From the left."

Itachi cursed. That is where they needed to go. The only other was would take them at least half a minute more and being caught by guards. Itachi had no choice. He closed his eyes and gathered chakra.

The footstep of the guard grew louder and louder.

The brash member of the Blue Flame hissed in panic. "Itachi what do we do?"

Itachi did not respond. Instead did… nothing.

"Itachi."

As the guard took a step around the corner, Itachi opened his Mangekyo Sharingan. A simple genjutsu and the guard fell slouching against the wall.

"Couldn't you tell us you were going to do that to him?" Konan asked rolling her eyes.

"Did you kill him?" Blurted out the brash member.

Itachi faced the rest of group as his red eyes faded back into onyx. "Just a slight genjutsu, just to make him sleep. Come on, we have to get out before he is discovered."

Turning heel, Itachi led the Blue Flame to their entrance door. The raven haired Uchiha nodded at Gozu, who at an inhumane speed took the lead right into the closed outer door. The door was flown off its hinges into the wall of the Hokage monument. The Blue Flame flew out and up the Hokage monument. Everyone stuck close together to minimize being caught by anyone.

Finally reaching the top of the Hokage monument the Blue Flame continued their run into the forest behind the monument. Itachi stopped and looked back over his old home. He just helped pull off what most nations only dream of doing. Top secret scrolls filled with top secret jutsus, seals, and training methods created for the Hidden Leaf Village or for others.

However, these belonged to people that only have very few remaining descendants scattered throughout the lands. It was time they returned to the rightful hands.

"Itachi."

The Uchiha turned to see Konan standing the shadows of the trees with her hood off.

"We have to move."

He nodded. The two synced in their running toward their objective.

"Naruto-kun will be happy to hear that we got everything."

Konan nodded. "We were lucky they had everything in the same place."

"It wasn't luck," Itachi muttered.

The blue haired Hidden Rain rogue looked over at her companion. "What do you mean?"

Itachi did not look over to witness the very suspicious eyes of Konan burying deep into his soul.

"Itachi," growled Konan in warning.

"We have to keep moving." He launched himself farther ahead to catch up with the rest of the Blue Flame. Konan rolled her eyes. Typical Itachi.

Soon after, Konan and Itachi regrouped with the Blue Flame. Their objective was not overly far from Konoha. Where they were headed to, they could still see Konoha, but be a safe distance away. After some time Itachi looked behind him at the retreating Leaf Village. He had, multiple times, snuck into the Hidden Leaf, both for the Akatsuki and the Blue Flame. While in the Blue Flame he did it mostly for Naruto, meeting and checking up on certain people.

Itachi thought it ironic. Ironic that Naruto was still the center of everything. Instead of being the target of the world's most feared organization, he is now the leader of the organization that will change the world.

Minutes later Itachi lead the Blue Flame to slow their pace to a walk as they entered a particularly thick section of bamboo. Making their way through it, the team entered a small clearing with a tiny structure and a pool being watched over by two small creatures.

"Ah, Itachi-boy."

Naruto ducked under a swinging arm of a rogue. Naruto smirked as his round housed kick connected with the back of this target's head, rendering him unconscious. Naruto, Sakura and the rest of their recently aligned team of Konoha and Blue Flame had used the direction of the trap to find the rogue's camp. The team had caught the rogues with their pants down. Some of them literally.

It had been about twenty minutes since they started their attack. The rogues outnumbered them almost three to one, but they had better quality ninja.

Naruto finished his spin to see Sakura upper-cut a rogue fifty feet into the air only to snap kick another rogue into two more.

"Sakura!"

The pink haired ninja turned to see Kit in a ready position. She nodded and sprinted at him. Using his hands as a platform, Naruto threw Sakura into the air.

Cocking her hand back, she started to scream. Like a comet with rage, Sakura impacted and punched the ground screaming her usual war scream, "Shannaro!"

Debris, dirt, and rogues went flying on every direction. Naruto smiled under the hood, he really missed her. It was great to get back in the field with her. She was scarier than she was years ago. Naruto turned to see how everyone else was doing. Guren was having fun with four rogues at once flipping over them. He knew she was struggling not to use her Kekkei Genkai. He specifically ordered everyone not to use jutsus or anything that would give away who their real identity is. Yukimaru only had water jutsus, so hiding the fact that he had Three-Tailed powers, hence the name Three. Red, thank Kami, they had hoods, otherwise people would see what made him so special.

Of course his old comrades from Konoha was doing a great job at taking rogues out. He saw Shikamaru dealing with fours rogues at once. Maybe he would like some help? Naruto started running toward Shikamaru, but then saw something off the corner of his eye toward the center of the rouges temporary camp. Following his instinct he ran to the center of camp. He stopped when he heard a noise from inside one of the larger tents. Carefully entering the tent, Naruto come upon a scene where one of the rogues was in a futile attempt to escape from a large, familiar figure.

Naruto smiled.

Sakura landed a kunai into the chest of the last rogue she was battling, letting the body plop to the ground. Checking all around her, she looked for more enemies to find she had defeated them all. The pinkette took a deep breath to calm her breathing. Glancing down, she checked herself. There was some good amount of blood and dirt on her. Not enough to make her uncomfortable. But enough to make her feel and look very intimidating. Bodies surrounded her. This was one of the things they never really taught you in the academy. The amount of death you would have to witness and live through. Sakura was a medic. She had seen death more than enough times from the hospital and her work with Tsunade to become immune to it all.

She noticed she was alone. Where did Kit go? She decided to go and check on the other members of their little expedition. She started with the Konoha ninja first. No offence to the Blue Flame, but they were not that great of friends yet.

Everyone had eliminated all of the rogues in their sectors and everyone began to gather at the center of the rogue's camp. Neji and Red apparently joined up and were defeating rogues together.

"Is that everyone?" Shikamaru asked.

"Kit is not here," Three pointed out.

That answered that question.

The Konoha ninja started to look around for him. The Blue Flame seemed to be unaffected by Kit's absence.

Guren explained. "There is no need to worry. I am sure he is fine."

Neji raised an eyebrow. "You are not worried he might be hurt or something?"

Even the pink medic was a tad worry. Even if she was not showing it.

Three perked up. "No. He always come back."

"Yes I do."

Everyone turned to see Kit walking up with some recent blood splatter on the small part of his cloak and pants giving him a real scary look.

As he entered the group, the Blue Flame parted to let him in.

"What happened to you?" The pink medic asked.

"Just a little problem, but I took care of it."

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the Blue Flame squad's leader. Something felt off. Not bad, just off. "What kind of problem?"

Kit chuckled slightly. "One that I took care of."

"Not very forth coming are you?" brashly asked Kiba. Akamaru barked in approval at the little jab his human took at the unknown Nine-tailed Fox Jailer.

Kit shrugged his shoulders. "We came what we came to do."

Neji nodded. "Mission accomplished."

"Ok everyone. Back to Konoha." Sakura said.

Everyone turned and began walking out of the rogue's camp.

"You know…." Kit began, he had everyone listening to him. "I have really enjoyed working with you all."

Once again, not surprisingly, all the Konoha ninja were surprised. Well, except Sakura. She smiled a bit.

"I think we all have in a way."

A "Suit yourself," came from behind them and Kiba was rolling his eyes.

"What is it Man-a-paws?" Guren teased out. The little comment had everyone smiling, smirking, or chuckling. Even Akamaru was laughing. "Are we not your cup of tea?"

Kiba threw his hands behind his head and growled.

Even with some laughs at Kiba's expense, the groups were getting along fine.

As the groups were making their way out of the clearing, Naruto heard a small bird call. He looked over, in the distance, in between the trees stood Konan, with her hood off. She gave him a slight nod. Naruto smirked. They were already successful at starting to get information? Dang, Itachi must not be holding back. Naruto kept walking like nothing happened.

The decision was made on taking some time to get back to Konoha. Naruto wanted the decision for multiple reasons. Most the reasons were now in the hands of his other team. He knew they had pulled off getting what they needed. This made Naruto so elated inside. Things were really going to start moving.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

IN KONAHA THE PREVIOUS DAY

The Hokage was walking through his village in the shadow of darkness. Even in his own village, he did not take any chances. His two personal ROOT ANBU flanked him, but then, in the shadows, lurked three other squads of ROOT. Couple time a week, at night, Danzo would walk through the village to mostly stretch his legs, but then talk to his in-village contacts. He loved his information.

He was making his way towards the middle of the village when an ANBU appeared kneeling before him.

"What is it?" Danzo growled.

The ANBU spoke, emotionless and uncaring. "Lord Danzo, there is a problem."

Danzo did not like problems. "What kind of problem?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The team and made it over halfway back to the Hidden Leaf before the made the decision to stop. The mood was light and friendly now that the teams got good looks at each other and started to somewhat trust each other. Now it was getting late into the night and they were getting ready for bed. Once again Naruto volunteered to be first watch and offered one of his old comrades to opportunity to join him.

Sakura obviously jumped at the chance. This made Naruto smile.

The two sat outside of the cave they were at previously at, reliving the action of the day's events. Currently they were laughing about how Sakura punched a guy so hard he flew at Kit and Kit kicked him right back at Sakura.

"He looked like a rag doll," laughed out Sakura.

"That was priceless," Kit agreed.

Sakura calmed down a little. Then she remembered something.

"So what took you so long?"

Even though she could not see it, Naruto was giving her a very confused face. "What took me...what?"

"What took you so long to get back to everyone?" Reiterated Sakura. "Did the great man who defeated Itachi get taken by surprise?"

Whether that was supposed to be a real stab at him or not, even though it was a fabricated lie that kind of hurt his pride. "Well I was not the one who killed him, our leader was, but moving past that, I just ran into a little trouble, is all."

Sakura was still curious. "What kind of trouble?"

"Just a big guy that took some time to take care of. Nothing I could not handle." Naruto smiled under the hood as remembered how he was seeing Gozu capture the leader of the rogues and then melting into the ground to avoid being detected.

Giving Kit a playful punch, Sakura had to tease him. "Uh-huh, sure!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

MILES AWAY….

The rest of the Blue Flame was in a small clearing with one tree near the middle of it. To said tree, was the leader of the small but annoying group of rogues that the combined efforts of the other part of the Blue Flame and some Konoha ninja just silenced forever. However, this unfortunate soul was the only survivor. Because they made it that way.

Everyone was staring down the cross-legged, tied up rogue. Konan was standing behind Itachi who was squatting in front of the rogue. Said rogue, was breathing heavily, drenched in his sweat.

Konan closed her eyes and breathed heavily. Itachi was using his visual prowess to find out the information that they sought. They knew, what they were looking for and knew that the information was there. But Itachi was still working on it. And he had been at it for a while.

Konan was getting a bit frustrated.

Frustrated at the rogue leader. Frustrated at Itachi. Frustrated it was all taking way too long. Itachi was taking it way too easy on him.

Raggedly breathing out his defiance, the rogue said, "…I… won…'t… tell… you… any…thing…"

Itachi slowly opened his now onyx eyes to stare at the rogue. A voice came from behind him. "Itachi." The Uchiha turned slightly to see Konan out of the corner of his eye. "Can you hurry this up? We are on a clock here."

They stared unwavering at each other briefly before Itachi turned his eyes back to his target. Staring into the rogue's leader's eyes he saw there was still some resistance there. Some. Not much. But there was something different about it.

Closing his eyes, Itachi explained. "I cannot make the jutsu too powerful, otherwise it might scramble his brain too much or kill him. Either way we would lose the information we need."

"How much longer?"

Itachi opened his now Sharingan eyes and looked at the rogue's eyes. "Not sure."

"Can't you just get the information?"

"It's become more complicated than that." The commas in Itachi's eyes began to spin. "Mentally he is very weak but there is something there preventing me from accessing what we are looking for. Almost like someone knew this could happen."

Itachi slowly initiated his optical jutsu sending the rogue into a dream-world. Itachi was trying to re-create a world for the rogue where he believes he can trust someone and tell them what it is. As he got close to revealing what the Blue Flame was looking for, something popped up and blocked Itachi from going any further. To Itachi, it was familiar, too familiar. Itachi attacked and defeated the block, and in its defeat, the block revealed who created it. It was the same person we hired these rogues to wreak havoc.

Itachi backed out of the rogue's mind. The rogue's head slumped down from now being unconscious.

Eyes closed. Itachi stood.

"Did you get it?"

Turning around, Itachi opened his Sharingan eyes. "It is just as we suspected."

The aura of the Blue Flame was a combination of feelings, from excitement to rage.

"The person who orchestrated this whole thing is…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

THE PREVIOUS DAY

Danzo walked briskly down the hall of the most secure building in his village. Walking through double doors flanked by multiple ANBU, Danzo moved on to the more important room. There were ANBU everywhere. They were checking the scrolls that were there.

Danzo walked up to Ibiki. "Report."

"There appears to have been a break in."

"Who could have done this?" Danzo growled.

Ibiki shrugged. "We don't know. Whoever they were, they were good. Knocked out the guards without killing a single one. Got in, took some scrolls, and left. All without a trace or without anyone noticing."

"We should be finding them, not praising them," Danzo snapped. He was not in a good mood. He was just humiliated.

Ibiki bowed. "My apologies, Lord Hokage."

Danzo ignored that. "What did they take?"

"We should have a list soon." As if planned and ANBU appeared and handed Ibiki a clipboard. Ibiki read through the scrolls that were missing. Some of them were familiar, some were not.

Danzo stretched out his hand, wanting the clipboard. Ibiki wordlessly handed it over.

Danzo started flipping through the pages. With every scroll found to be missing, Danzo's eyes widened. This was not just some random scroll grab. They knew what was here. All of the scrolls had two things in common. They were from the Uzumaki clan or they were related to the Fourth Hokage. Great seal masters. Seals and jutsus. All that were created for, by, or was given to Konoha.

All of them now gone.

Danzo began shaking with rage. ANOTHER humiliation. Something that has only happened since…

Everything came into focus.

The Blue Flame.

That was the only thing that made any sense. Even if they were not the ones who did it, this was a perfect opportunity. This gave Danzo a reason to detain The Blue Flame. Then he can really get some answers! Danzo internally smiled. He was going turn this major blow into a positive.

Silently Danzo turned and walked out. He needed to prepare. He knew they would be back. He just had to be patient.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PRESENT TIME

Sakura let out a big yawn as she trenched her arms. They, Kit and Sakura, were nearing the end of their watch. Sakura was feeling the effects of the fight. It was not necessarily difficult. The fight took a while but Sakura was pushing herself hard.

The pink haired girl looked over at the hooded Kit who was in a relaxed position with one arm draped over his knee. "Where will you go?"

Naruto looked over at his lifelong crush with a tilted head. "Huh?"

Sakura moved her head to rest on one of her hands and restated the question. "Where will you guys go after this? I would hate to think all this was for nothing."

Kit looked into the sky as if looking for something. "Well we need to meet up with the rest of our comrades. Then after that…who knows?"

Naruto looked back over a Sakura who was studying him with a trained eyes. He knew she was trying to figure out who he was. And he knew it would only be a short time before she did. He feared what her reaction would be once she found out who he really is.

"Why don't you stay in the village?" The suggestion came as a surprise to the hooded Kyuubi vessel. She wanted his to be there? Sakura adjusted herself closer to Kit. "We can ask the Hokage when we get back. I am sure did would not mind, as long as you can share some things with us."

Naruto was silent for a time. He was hesitant. There was nothing he would not give to be back in the village with her and all his friends. The offer was very enticing. However, he remembered his situation, and the cold truth of reality. Once they knew who he was... it would be over for Naruto Namikaze.

"That sounds nice," Naruto said.

"But.." Sakura finished for him.

Naruto chuckled. "How did you know there was a 'but'?"

Sakura smiled a bit. "There usually is one."

She was right. Of course. "But… let us be realistic, Danzo does not trust me nor my fellow Blue Flame members."

"After this mission, that could change!"

Again, Naruto was silent. "Maybe."

"Why do you have to sound so down about?" Sakura thought it was strange how Kit was acting. They were hitting it off great. Why was he suddenly being this way?

Naruto was about to speak when Kiba, Akamaru and Guren walked up behind them. "Shift change."

Naruto nodded and got up. Sakura joined him walking back to their sleeping bags.

"I'm going to be honest with you," Rang Kit's voice. Sakura was not expecting it. She thought he just did not want to talk about it. She looked at Kit in anticipation. "As well as our teams have worked together on this mission I do not think Danzo will ever welcome us with open arms. I know the respect and the honor you have to follow the orders of your Hokage, as he is your village leader so you have to follow him. Danzo is a power hungry man, he would want to control us. We do not want to be controlled or used. His goals are separate than ours. We are just two different forces colliding that will never mesh. I'm sorry if that seems harsh, but that is the simple truth."

They arrived at the small, dwindling fire and their sleeping bags. Sakura was surprised to feel herself disappointed by his words.

"But…" he whispered.

The medic looked up at the mysterious man. There was a 'but'?

"I enjoyed working with you."

Sakura could not tell but she could just feel the smile form under the hood. This made her smile. She smiled at him. With a slight nod, they made their way to their own sleeping bags to succumb to the call of sleep and to dream about their own dreams.

The next morning came way too quickly for Sakura. She had loved this mission and the chance to get to know the Blue Flame more. And maybe a chance to get to know Kit better. However, as her luck would always have it, their time was growing shorter.

The trip back to Konoha was actually a lot of fun. Everyone seem to open up a little bit more about themselves. The Konoha ninja learned that Crys is actually really good at making great sushi. Sakura never thought that people like them could have interests, or even be people at all! It was kind of funny.

The closer they got to Konoha the slower their pace seemed to be. A few miles away from Konoha they got on the main path to the gates. They, almost, stressing almost, blended in with the crowd of people going to and from the Leaf. Along the path, Naruto heard a few bird calls and identified them as the eagles Konoha uses. They were flying toward the Village. Naruto figured they were alerting the Village the teams were returning.

Then, Naruto heard a bird call, not like the rest. He looked to his right and saw Itachi in the trees. Naruto smiled. Everything was ready. He turned slightly to his team and nodded, letting them know everything was set.

The gates where now approaching.

"Well gang," started Naruto. "It was fun!"

Sakura smiled. "Yea it was." The rest of the Konoha ninja agreed.

Looking ahead, the whole group and combined Konoha and Blue Flame ninja, spotted the Hokage standing in the middle of the street. He was flanked by his personal ANBU, Tsunade, the Village elders, and the council. Sakura and Naruto lead the mixed group before the Hokage. They stopped about ten feet from Danzo.

The Konoha ninja moved into a line and bowed to their leader together. Naruto and the Blue Flame did not even attempt to do the same thing.

"Mission successful, Lord Hokage," Shikamaru stated.

Danzo nodded, showing he actually heard Shikamaru, but his gaze was upon Kit.

Sakura followed her leader's gaze until her own emerald eyes rested on the figure of Kit. Soon everyone else noticed this and started looking at Kit. Most were confused as why Danzo was staring down a hooded man, who was not saying anything back. Suddenly the air became quite heated. There was an energy in the air. This energy was coming from Danzo. He was pissed. All of his hate was narrowed at the Blue Flame. The air was so tense, someone could cut it with a knife…

"You know I have been stinking my tongue out at you this whole time." Everyone almost jumped at the voice of Kit. Most deadpanned at his statement. This only served to make Danzo even more irate.

"I have had enough disrespect out of you," snarled Danzo, hate vivid in his eyes. "Surround them."

From out of the shadows, both ANBU and regular ninja alike hopped into a wide circle around the Blue Flame, in attack stances and weapons at the ready. Wordlessly The Blue Flame hopped into a defensive around Naruto. He stood, perfectly still, as if nothing was happening around him. Sakura was even more confused.

"L-Lord Hokage, what is the meaning of this?" Almost screamed Sakura.

Danzo's hateful gaze moved to her. "Get back and be silent girl."

Naruto did not like that. And since he was already surrounded, he felt the gloves were off. "Don't you dare talk to her like that!"

Danzo looked back at Naruto. "You have no say here! You cannot tell me what to do! I am the Hokage! And you are hereby put under arrest!"

Danzo's face went from furious to smug when Naruto remained quiet for a second. He thought he had the upper hand.

Then there was a noise. It slowly got louder. Then everyone realized that it was coming from Kit.

He was laughing.

Hard.

This, again, pissed Danzo off. Kit was supposed to be scared, not laughing. "What is so damn funny?"

This just made Naruto laughing even harder. "Under arrest?" He laughed some more. "For what?"

In an attempt to silence Kit, Danzo struck his cane into the ground. "Silence you fool! You are under arrest for attacking Konoha ninja and stealing Forbidden Scrolls."

Tsunade and the rest of the council were not informed of the robbery of their precious sealed forbidden scrolls from their most heavily guarded facilities.

Again Naruto laughed harder. "You think, that we, snuck into the village, broke in and stole scrolls that we have had no idea even existed, all while being out on a mission with four of your best ninja?"

Tsunade knew she liked this guy. "He does have a point," she mumbled to the rest of the council. Despite the situation, they chuckled. Danzo growled.

Kit sudden stopped laughing. "You're damn right we did."

Everyone's eyes widened at his declaration. Suddenly The Blue Flame's number doubled, as the rest of the Blue Flame's members appeared out of thin air around their surrounded comrades, ready to defend them. All the Konoha ninja jumped back at their sudden appearance.

"What the hell is this?" grumbled Danzo.

"This," shouted Kit, "is the rest of the Blue Flame. Say hello boys and girls."

No one spoke. Even in this situation, surrounded in the Leaf Village Naruto was making jokes. The situation was getting more and more intense with every passing second.

"Good," countered Danzo, "now we can detain you all at once." His smug smile got bigger thinking he had the upper hand. "You will tell us everything you know."

"I don't think so," snapped back Naruto.

"You are surrounded," shouted one of Danzo's lackeys. "Give up and you will not be harmed!"

Naruto looked around at all the faces he was surrounded with. This was his old home. These were his old comrades and family. It was kind of ironic, before they treated him like and outcast, now they were afraid him.

Then a soft voice came to Naruto's ear. "What was it all for?"

He turned to find his eyes had found his pink-haired crush. She looked on the verge of tears.

"What was it all for?" Sakura repeated. "Were you just using us? Using me?"

If she was trying to make Naruto feel bad, doing a great job at it. He saw the tears building in her eyes. That unspoken question of, _did I mean nothing to you?_ That obviously was not true.

Now Tsunade stepped forward, interrupting their little fight. "So now, why don't you tell us who you really are?"

Naruto took a deep breath. He knew his identity would be found out eventually, he wanted it that way. Now the time had come.

"We are the ones who seek truth. We are the ones who are set apart. We are the ones who seek another path. We share the same dream. We will fight for it. We want everyone to have it was well. Our goals are the elimination of war, corruption, and pain. We are the Blue Flames of Rebirth, and our goal is world peace."

This outburst was not one that anyone had expected. An evil chuckle was heard as a response to that. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the source. Danzo.

"Such a childish dream," mocked Danzo. "The world is bigger and darker than you know. And you cannot change that."

"Ha!" Shouted Naruto. "You only think that. Only the weak minded think in such restricted ways. We actually have someone from across the sea from the Land of Ice. Mia."

One of the Blue Flame members lowered her hood slowly, revealing pure white hair and bright, light blue eyes. She was beautiful. Whipping out her favorite weapon, she held her white katana out in front of her. "And if any of you disagree with me, I dare you to come and change my mind." Itachi rolled his eyes under his hood. No matter in what situation she was always brash and head first. She and Naruto always got along in that aspect.

"So what does that matter?" grumbled Homura. "You will lay down your weapons and surrender."

"Yea, I don't think so," retorted Kit.

Danzo sneered, "I am done with you and your little group and your insolence!"

Danzo pointed two fingers at Kit. At once, fifty or so ninja jumped at the Blue Flame.

"Devine Whirlwind!" Kit turned in a circle with his arms and palms out, creating a vortex of wind blowing dirt and the attackers away from himself and the Blue Flame.

Sakura covered her eyes from all the dust flying at her. And the wind and dirt calmed. Whoever remained standing, looked up to see the Blue Flame and not moved and Kit was once again staring down Danzo. The failing wind was whipping around the coats of the Blue Flame giving them a more intimidating look.

"How dare you attack my ninja in my own village!" Danzo practically screamed.

"Actually you attacked us," Kit corrected with a mocking finger in the air. The he turned to the crowd and raised his voice for all to hear. "We are here to declare our intention to return this world to peace! It's an idea that your so-called leader thinks is childish and impossible! However, we of the Blue Flame think differently! We want to show that it is possible! We announce our intentions to eliminate corruption! To remove those who keep the idea of peace out of reach. Those who whisper lies to us to keep us in line and keep us fighting. People like your Hokage!" Naruto spun heel and pointed right at Danzo. People gasped at this declaration. Sakura was dumb founded at what Kit was saying.

Danzo was red from anger. "You know-"

"I know what?" taunted Naruto. "I know nothing? That is a shame, because I know a lot about you Danzo. The Shinobi of Darkness! You are so afraid of the light, the very thing that a leader should be growing and building in, yet you know nothing but black and darkness! And we have the evidence to prove it! Like that little band of rogues you just sent us to take out. We captured their leader. Once we got him talking, he had a lot to say. Especially about you, Danzo."

Danzo was gripping his cane very tightly. The wood started to creak. Everyone around was listening to what this hooded man was saying. This was bad. They had found out that he was paying the rogues to keep the security payment to Konoha coming in faster. He had to spin it his way. But Kit kept on going. "You are an evil man Danzo. You use fear and intimidation to get what you want. How you are Hokage is beyond me. You don't deserve the title."

"SILENCE YOU IMPOTENT FOOL!" screamed the furious Hokage. "YOU KNOW NOTHING! YOU ARE A NAMELESS, FACELESS, AND VILLAGELESS WANT-TO-BE ROGUE NINJA, WHO HAS NO RIGHT TO BE IN THIS WORLD."

During Danzo's little spat toward him he turned around, his back toward Danzo. Naruto let Danzo's words seep in. Danzo was partially right. Naruto had become all those things. That stuck deeper at Naruto than even he would admit.

But Danzo was also dead wrong.

And Naruto was going to show how wrong Danzo really was.

"You're wrong." Said Naruto. "You are wrong at the top of your lungs. I do have a name."

Sakura watched as Kit reached up with both hands, and began lowering his hood. Sakura eyes widened more the hood was lowered. Bright, spiky blond hair. It couldn't be.

Naruto let his hood fall the rest of the way. He slowly turned around to stare into Danzo's eye.

"My name is Naruto Namikaze!"

Gasps were heard all around.

The world disappeared for Sakura. There he was. Her sunshine. Her pillar. Her best friend. He was alive. So many thoughts and feeling overtook Sakura at once she felt like she might cry. She missed him so much. She just knew he was alive, deep down. Now he was standing, in front of her! Alive!

But then why? He was alive, why did he not tell her? But why did he let her go through all that pain when he could have told her. She remembered he was sentenced to death. He had to disappear. Even if she could have helped him, they would have found him and killed him anyways.

She was sad, happy, disappointed, elated, and… too many other emotions. All that mattered right now was that he was alive.

She gave him a look over.

It was Naruto. That much was obvious. But his hair was longer. His bangs could hang over his eyes with ease. The ever present cerulean eyes seemed to almost glow with life. The whiskers almost seemed to be a little bit longer. He was broader in the shoulders. In that white cloak, he reminded her of someone. But who? He said his name was Naruto Namikaze. She thought it was Uzumaki. The only Namikaze she ever heard was…. The Fourth Hokage.

No way!

It all made sense now. Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage!

Unconsciously, Sakura took a few step forward. "Naruto…"

Naruto turned to look at her. "Hi…Sakura-chan."

Sakura couldn't take it anymore. The tears of pure emotion spilled from her eyes. Hearing him say this silly pet name for her again… "Naruto!" She began running forward then a hand stopped her. She was expecting Danzo, or some ANBU, but not her master.

"Tsunade?"

Sakura could tell, Tsunade was fighting the same battle she was of running forward to Naruto. With a little jerk of her head, the older blond motioned to the situation at hand. Sakura looked around and suddenly remembered. Naruto was surrounded, by the very people he used to call family.

"Hey Baa-chan."

Tsunade could not help but smirk and the brat's name for her. "Brat."

Then it appeared. The very thing Sakura missed. That great, big, goofy smile of his. "Good to see you."

Naruto nodded. It was obvious, Tsunade had many questions. One of the most important was his declaration of his true family name. But she fell back on just one. But Danzo beat her to it.

"How are you still alive?"

Naurto's attention turned back to the wrinkly old Hokage, with a playful yet evil smirk.

"You mean after you branded me for death and sent your little pets on me to kill me?" Naruto's evil chuck, scared Sakura. "You need more than that to kill me." A dark energy seemed to almost radiate from Naruto, aimed at the Hokage.

The people around Danzo seemed to be very uncomfortable. A few started to visibly sweat. It was not killer intent coming from Naruto. It was pure evil. It was pure pain. It was all the negative emotions boiled together. It was everything that Naruto was not. But that look in his eyes. It was something more. Something ancient. Something primordial. It was scary. Awe-inspiring. Epic.

Danzo was somehow holing himself together with all this aimed at him.

Tsunade looked Naruto up and down. He had grown up. "Why did you not come for help?"

Only Naruto's eyes moved to Tsunade. "Uh, what do you think this means?" Using his thumb he point to his forehead protector. Sakura finally noticed it.

The mark.

The horizontal scratch through the Leaf symbol. Sakura gasped as her mind wrapped around what that really meant. A rogue. Naruto was a rogue.

"The village, which I sacrificed so much for, turned their backs on me. Then tried to kill me. This was the only path for me." Even if he was not talking about them, his friends, especially Sakura felt the sting of his words. "But I have to thank you. I have found another path. The path that will not only affect one village, but the world. I have found people who I trust with my life to help me transform this world. And it is all thanks to you… Danzo."

Danzo narrowed his eye at Naruto. Danzo began to say something when Naruto cut him off. "Danzo," Naruto used one arm to point at the old Hokage, "You are corrupt! You have hurt people, use them, and kill innocent people for only your own gain! Danzo, we will stop you!"

Danzo did not respond. Instead he had another idea. "Kill them!"

Danzo's ANBU did not hesitate, yet there were other ninja who knew who Naruto was and what he did for the village. However, they had to listen to the Hokage. They launched their own jutsus toward the white clocked rogues.

"NOOOOOO!" Sakura screamed.

Naruto only stood there with his arms crossed, with a small smirk on his face.

All the Jutsus impacted and crated a large explosion, creating more damage than Naruto's attack did. The wind whipped at Danzo's cloak. Sakura was blown back. She panicked. She could not lose Naruto again he just came back.

The debris and dirt clear to reveal, the only Blue Flame member who had moved was a now hoodless light blue haired woman who had her hands together in a hand sign. The Blue Flame was surrounded by a wall of think pink crystal. Guren single handedly stopped all the attacks.

Doing another hand sign the crystal disappeared.

Danzo was stunned at the woman's ability. Sakura was stunned to have run into this woman again. But hey, Naruto just came back from the dead. Anything was possible.

Suddenly Naruto's voice broke everyone's shock. "Sorry Danzo, we would love to stay, but we have a world to change. And we are coming after you. And thank you for all my family's scrolls."

Naruto nodded. All of the Blue Flame moved to surround their leader all holding a Ram hand sign. Naruto then flew through ten hand signs, landing on Ram. Naruto looked at Sakura and subtly winked.

Danzo's voice pierced the air. "GET THEM!"

Ninja jumped toward the rogues.

Naruto was waiting to do this. "REVERSE SUMMONING JUTSU!" Naruto slammed his palm on the ground. All the ninja were blown back from the steam that bloomed from the technique.

The smoke clear.

Sakura just kept staring at the spot where Naruto was. It was now empty. She fell to her knees. He was alive!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two small creatures stood before a group of people who just appeared before them.

"So Naruto-boy, how did it go?"

Everyone on the Blue Flame lowered their hoods. They were all smiling at what they just pulled off. Toads from all around were coming to see the triumphant group's return.

Naruto smiled.

"All went according to plan."


	9. Chapter 9

HEY guys! IM BAAAAAAAAAACKKK!

It has been awhile, I know. I apologize. Again, super busy, especially with the holidays and my new basketball season. Sometimes I want to lose my freaking mind!

Anyways, I am super excited for you to read this chapter, so I will keep this short. This chapter is a bit longer than usual, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! You guys are the best supporters ever! And this story is now in 4 communities! Yay! Keep up the work guys!

LOVE YOU! And seriously, I like to help people. If you are going through a hard time. PM me, I would be more than happy to talk to you about it. :)

NOW ON WITH THE SHOW!

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Naruto was on his back, with his hands behind is head, laying on a large leaf in Mount Myoboku. A few hours ago, he and the rest of the Blue Flame successfully pulled off the biggest heist of the Hidden Leaf Village since he stole the Forbidden Scroll. This made Naruto smile.

All the scrolls they stole had once belonged to his once great, now basically extinct, clan. He heard about them from Jiraiya a small bit, but then when he and Itachi became allies, he heard about the rest. Naruto was not lying when he said he wanted world peace. Not just for the ninja world. The whole world. Even the Tailed Beasts. His family scrolls could help him with that. There was going to be a lot of hard work ahead of Blue Flames of Rebirth.

But for now, they needed to rest. They had been pushing themselves very hard these past few months to get ready for their mission. They were successful. No one was either hurt or killed. Both things were considered great in his book.

Removing one hand from behind his head, the leader of the Blue Flame reached down and removed a kunai from one of his leg pouches. Using a single finger, he twirled the kunai over and over. Suddenly he closed his hand around the handle, stopping the kunai's continuous spins. He looked at the odd three pronged kunai. He was careful not to reveal that he actually knew his father's signature technique. He did it to Sakura, but she didn't notice anything.

Looking past the kunai, he gazed into the setting sun. The sun was splashing out colors of gold, red, and pink across the cloud and darkening sky. His stared into the pink colors of the sky and only thought about her. He thought about the way she looked at him when she found out who he was. Her face was a full scale of emotions. Shock, fear, awe, elation, sadness, happiness, and a few others Naruto could not quite put his finger on. He had to, with all his might, keep himself from running to her. He wanted to be with her or take her with him. But he knew, that was not a good idea. He loved her. However he needed to focus on the task at hand. After the world was at peace he could bring her back into his life.

He had to admit, he somewhat knew how she was doing. He had sent Itachi back into Konoha on multiple occasions to scout out for their mission. He also told Itachi to check in on Sakura, if he could find her without jeopardizing being caught. This was Itachi. Of course he did both. He knew Sakura was growing stronger and was still looking for Sasuke, because he was dead. Well, not anymore. Now the world knew he was still alive.

He was mad at himself because he knew he had hurt her, even if it was not his intention. He would make it up to her. He had to. They both needed closure.

In an old Naruto fashion he came up with an idea. He gave an evil little smirk.

Minutes later Naruto donned his Blue Flame cloak as he walked out of the forest. He entered the central village that was constructed when he started this whole thing. A lot of the toads came and lived here. They were everywhere. Large and small. Every color combination possible had to be located somewhere in the toad metropolis.

The blonde said hello to a lot of the toads as he made his way to the large building near the center of the mini village. He finally entered the building. To the second floor he went. After two different turns he entered a rather large oval room surrounded by scrolls and maps. In the center of the room was a large table with a large map of the world on top of it. Also on top of the table were Mama and Papa Sage Toads. Around the table stood most of the Blue Flame, looking intensely at it. Yukimaru and the one they called Red were sitting in the corner playing a board game they came up with themselves. Only they knew how to play. The other part of the Blue Flame were in a deep conversation. Of course it was Itachi and Konan. They may not always get along but they worked very well together.

Naruto walked up on their across the table conversation.

"…to keep the identities of those who have not been discovered already our top priority," Konan stated.

Itachi sighed. "Naruto revealed his identity directly to the Hokage. Danzo has no idea who else Naruto recruited into the Blue Flame."

Konan pointed at Guren. "He knows about Guren and her abilities. Plus, with a little digging he would be able to figure out Yukimaru and Gozu are a part of us too."

And of could she had to interject. "They know about me too!" Mia stated proudly.

Konan snorted. "They don't know who you are or your special abilities."

Mia's eyes stared to glow blue as she narrowed her eyes at Konan. "They will," she threatened.

Naruto had to stop this before it got out of hand. "It doesn't matter if they know who we are."

This is when everyone finally noticed Naruto entered the room. Everyone stopped and turned their attention to their leader.

Konan had a good counterpoint. "It does matter. Once they find out who some of us are, and where we came from, Danzo will summon all the other Kages and make plans to capture or kill us."

Naruto closed his eyes in concentration. He opened them to look at his fellow Blue Flame members. He may have been their leader, but he thought of them as equals.

"Konan, we have you, former and original Akatsuki member. We have Itachi, one of the most powerful and smartest ninja to ever come out of the Hidden Leaf and the powerful Uchiha clan. We have Mia, hailing from across the massive ocean from the Land of Ice and from one of their most powerful clans. Guren, with her special abilities, along with Gozu's strength and Yukimaru's power. Then we have Red." Red stopped his game with Yukimaru and walked over. "We may call him Red, but with Ranmaru's dojutsu, makes him untouchable. Then finally we have the ultimate scary lady.."

"Hey!" shouted Anko from across the table.

Naruto continued. "…Anko is the just Anko. She studied under Orochimaru. Danzo hunted her out of Konoha because of her training. " Naruto spread his arms as in demonstration as to "show" Konan all they had. "We have some of the best ninja in the world standing in this room."

"Well said Naruto-boy," praised Mama Toad.

Naruto walked over to Konan and put a hand on her shoulder. He smiled down at her. He knew she meant well. Out of the whole group she played the caring, tough-love mother role. She was a worry wart. Most people would not know that about her. She kept her circle of friends small.

"Don't worry so much Konan, we know that one day they would find out the identities of most, if not all of us. It was important to get my name out first."

Konan shook her head. "Now other nations will know that you went rogue and will send teams out to find you."

Naruto laughed. "They can never figure out where I am, especially here. Even Danzo cannot figure out where this place is."

Naruto turned to the rest of the team. Anko spoke up. "How do you think they will react to the knowledge that you are the Fourth Hokage's son?"

Naruto rested both hands on the table to lean against them. "I know most of the council most likely does not know. There is no way the village elders and Danzo did not know. I know the Third knew. My friends… I have no idea how they will react.

"Above all else, the very knowledge of my heritage, and what we have just pulled off was a huge slap in the face of Danzo. He will try to come after us with everything at his disposal. We will be the ones to topple him off his throne…"

He looked around at his fellow members. All of them with that fire in their eyes that he saw when they first started their little adventure.

That power will change the world.

"I wonder what Konoha is talking about right now.." Yukimaru asked.

Naruto knew exactly what they were talking about. He smirked.

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In Konoha Danzo and the entire council sat around a table, Tsunade was also present. Danzo and the elders at the head of it. The council was waiting for Danzo to start. He had called an emergency meeting. They had sat in silence for about ten minutes.

"What an utter disgrace."

Danzo was not happy. It seemed to be theme nowadays, especially with any dealing with the Blue Flame of Rebirth. And after the little debacle at the entrance of the village...he was more pissed than usual.

"We let our jinjuriki escape again! How did this happen?"

He was glancing around at the rest of the council, looking for answers and almost daring someone to say something.

Shikaku Nara, sitting with his arms crossed and eyes closed, decided to break the ice and address the elephant in the room. "If you did not sentence him to death in the first place, none of this would have ever happened."

Danzo's hate filled eyes landed on the Nara. Even under scrutiny Shikaku was cool, calm, and collective. "It was a decision that was made for the safety of this village. The boy could not control the beast, which was obvious when he turned into the Nine-Tails itself. We could not have this. We discussed this years ago. We need to address this new situation…"

Inoichi spoke up. "Which one?"

"Yes," agreed Shikaku, "There are few to be addressed."

Choza Akimichi raised an eyebrow. "A few?"

Shikaku opened eyes to look around the room at everyone. "I will get back to the point of putting him to death in a minute but I want to focus on the other things I think need to be addressed.

"First, is how did an unknown organization get into out village and get out untouched twice? Once to retrieve scrolls, that we were not informed that were even stolen in the first place, and second to escape when completely surrounded by the entire village. How did they even know about the scrolls when most jonin don't even know about them? And where did they know where they were located? Plus they got passed the Barrier Corps. Naruto was good but nowhere near as knowledgeable to have that information. I doubt Kakashi ever told him about it.

"Second, Naruto is aware of his true Heritage. If he knows the Fourth is his father, logic says he knows about the truth about the Uzumaki Clan. With this in mind, only a few people in the entire village knew the truth about Naruto. The Third's law saw to that. However since Naruto knows who his parents are, this lifts the ban on us who knew the real secret. I know most of this council did not know, you may have had your suspicions, but none of those who knew could confirm it. Now, that this is out, and basically the whole village knows. This creates….a troublesome problem."

"Problem?" Asked Hiashi Hyuga. His was curious.

"The son of the beloved Fourth Hokage is now a rogue ninja. People will already be shocked to find out the truth about Naruto. Then even before they can come to terms with that, the new about him being a rogue comes to light. There was once a time where he could not walk through the village without people swarming him. Now he has clearly severed all ties with this village.

"This brings me back to my original point of why would we want to put to death one of the most promising ninja ever, who housed the most powerful Tailed Beast, who we now know is the inheritor and the legacy of both Namikaze and Uzumaki clans, both of which are basically extinct. We need.."

"..him to die." Interrupted and finished Danzo. Danzo's face was a darker color of red from the rage he was feeling. He grabbed his staff and firmly planted it into the ground before standing up and slamming his hand of the table.

"We went through this years ago, when we, the elders and the Hokage of this great village made the decision to end his life, for the ultimate good of the village. My order still stands. He is to be captured and eliminated. Now that he has revealed himself and has made it clear the he is a rogue ninja, we need to take him of him at once. What makes it worse is he is our jinjuriki. Imagine if Kumo, or any other nation manage to capture him? They would use the Nine-Tails against us!"

During the speech, Danzo was looking around the room at all the clan heads, almost daring them to challenge him. They all knew different. He was their leader. Even if they wanted different, he was the village head. They had to follow. His direction was the village's.

"We must find him and return him…Immediately! Get to it." Danzo turned and fiercely walked out of the room. He was done hearing them, and being reminded of his humiliation and failures. He could almost see Hiruzen laughing at him. This made him scowl. Everything he had worked so hard for, he was not going to let some punk teen ruin it all.

"Damn you Naruto Namikaze."

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Silence.

That was the only thing that was heard among the known "Rookie 12". Even out at their favorite restaurant, they were still in silence. Some attempted the start a conversation but it quickly died because everyone was lost in their own thoughts. Something had happened that completely left them, even Kiba, in complete shock.

Naruto was alive!

He had returned! The village was a buzz about the news. The village hero had returned! But did he come back? No. He was still out there. As a rogue. And then his declaration of his true lineage, the son of the Fourth Hokage!

So much information to process and come to terms with. Ino looked up and around at each of the remaining Rookie 12's faces. You could tell each of them were having their own inner thoughts based on their facial expressions. Finally Ino' eyes landed on the frame of the infamous pink haired ninja.

Sakura looked the worst.

Ino could understand, Sakura's head must be going in circles. To have her best friend ripped unexpectedly from her, only her him to reappear in front of her and disappear again. The torture must be unbearable. Ino remembered when Naruto first "died". Sakura was a complete mess. It was like nothing mattered anymore. But soon to everyone's surprised she was, almost, back to her normal self. When people made the mistake of asking her how she turned around so quick, she would begin to look sad and only say, because that is what 'he' would want. Sakura left it at that.

Ino had a talk with Tsunade about Sakura and Naruto. Both elder and younger blond agreed to keep the topic of Naruto as far from Sakura as possible. Both went out of their way to keep people away from Sakura who could possibly poke into that sensitive subject. Ino gave her best girlfriend a sad look. Sakura's eyes were a dark shade of emerald, full of sadness. Ino sighed. She knew this must have been difficult for Sakura.

"We need to talk about it," a voice said, breaking the looming silence. Everyone looked up to find that it was Shikamaru was the one who had spoken. His eyes closed and arms crossed.

"Talk about what?" asked Ino, as if trying to warn him off from the subject.

Before he could continue another voice took over. "The Naruto problem."

Everyone quickly turned to eye Neji. Only the girls looked away for a moment to check on Sakura. Her eyes were hidden under the pink curtain of her hair.

"What Naruto problem?" Choji almost blurted out.

Shikamaru was quick to shush his best friend, before looking around to check for wandering ears. Making sure nothing was amiss, "We need to talk, but not here." Shikamaru signaled to group to follow. He stopped quickly, and looked at Ino. "Ino, grab Sakura."

The blond beauty walked over and put a supportive arm under her friend to guide her up. Sakura just went where the pressure told her to go. She was drowning in her own thoughts.

Naruto. Alive.

Those words repeated over and over again in her head. Naruto. Alive. Her best friend. That immovable rock she could always fall back on and rely on. He never gave up, never gave in. But he had died. She saw his jacket. The blood. No normal human could receive that much abuse and live. Naruto. Alive.

He had made it back, he had pretended to be dead. He let her think he was dead. All of those thoughts and feelings she had to go through, and yet he was alive. The countless nights. The tears. The struggles she had to go through, when she needed him. He was not there. But… Naruto. Alive.

Her thoughts kept going in circles and circles, getting nowhere. But, it was all she could think about.

Naruto. Alive.

The pinkette shook her head to maybe make her thoughts arrange themselves, and think anything else than that small circle she kept thinking. Opening her eyes, she finally saw where they had been going. Wait…when did she start walking? Who was guiding her? Ino?

"Wha..?"

"Shika will explain everything when we get there," Sakura looked at her blond female friend. Ino gave Sakura a small smile.

The medic ninja nodded. She had no idea the reason they were going to the… Nara compound? What is going on? She really had to stop being lost in her own world. She could use a mission.

Shikamaru lead the group through his compound to a large meeting room. He let everyone in, sliding the door closed behind them. He made one hand sign. A seal appeared on the ceiling. Everyone sat in a circle on some pillows that were there. Shikamaru joined them on the floor. He closed his eyes a sighed.

The future head of the Nara family opened his eyes to look at all of his fellow Leaf ninja. "We obviously have a major problem. The Naruto problem." While he spoke he avoided looking at Sakura until he said Naruto's name. He could not see her reaction because her face was shadowed by her signature hair. "Yes, we all were led to believe that Naruto was dangerous for the village, we were also led to believe that he was dead. Both, we knew, deep down could not be true. Now with the recent events, obviously both are untrue. Naruto is alive. He is not dangerous to the village."

"Then how is that a problem?" blurted out Kiba.

"Naruto is a missing ninja." Obviously not everyone knew that small part. People's faces were of shock and worry. He swore he heard Sakura gasp a little bit, as if all the true meaning of that came crashing in on her.

"No way," Hinata gasped out softly.

"Impossible," agreed Choji.

"It's true," Neji said across from Shikamaru. "Naruto made it a point to point out his forehead protector."

"It had the rogue scratch on it," finished Shikamaru.

"How can that be?" Ino asked. "This is Naruto we are talking about! The kid was on his way to be Hokage!"

Hinata finally spoke out. "Yea, he worked so hard, and protected the whole village. He is the village's hero! How could he turn his back on all of that? How could he turn his back on us?"

Everyone in the group was finally letting all their confusions and thoughts out. The dam broke, the flood of everything came rushing out. Shikamaru knew this needed to happen in a safe place, which is why he brought them here. Here they could talk freely without the likes of Danzo's goons finding out. Plus, it was a clan meeting room. It was illegal for uninvited guest to be there. Shikamaru knew Danzo would not follow the law, which was what the seal was for.

"Yea, something is out of place," agreed Neji.

"Why would he want to be a rogue?" asked Ino to the group.

Shikamaru crossed his arms and wrapped his finger around his chin in concentration. "None of this makes any sense. Naruto would never do something like that, ever. He must have found something, or someone told him something that really turned him against the Leaf."

"But what could be so bad that Naruto goes against his dreams and us?" Hinata asked.

Shikamaru occasionally glanced at Sakura waiting for her to join the conversation. However her head remained lowered.

"Didn't you hear him?" Every head but one turned to Neji he had his arms crossed and eyes closed. He opened them to look at everyone. "He is going after Danzo."

Another set of gasps, went through the friends. People started firing out responses without hesitation or filters.

"What?" breathed out an even more stunned Hinata.

"He can't be serious!" screamed Ino.

"It's true," said a small voice at last. All the voices settled down and all eyes finally came to rest on the figure that had spoken a single word the entire time she had been there.

Sakura.

Her voice sounded in pain, confusion, joy, and a hundred other emotions. She slowly lifted her head up until everyone could barely see the eyes that had escaping tears pouring out of the sides.

"Naruto…is alive. He…is a rogue. He wants….to overthrow Danzo. He let us believe he was dead. He let m…He put us through hell without him. He is now an enemy of Konoha. Marked for death… it's all true." No one seemed to breathe while she spoke. She spoke so softly they would almost not hear her. The pink hair curtain didn't help either. "That's not the Naruto I know." She raised her head so everyone could see her face. The girl gasped as they saw that she was crying heavily now. She was pushed beyond her emotional limits. "I want to believe it is all a dream. That the person we saw might not have been him. That it is all just a misunderstanding, or identity confusion. But it's not. It was him. And I feel so betrayed by him, that he would not come to us. For help! We are his friends! Instead he ran off, let us all think he was dead for so long…."

Sakura wanted to keep going, however, Shikamaru had other plans. "Sakura!"

Sakura flinched at the harshness in Shikamaru's voice. She put her head back down. Her shoulders shaking slightly. Fists clenching tightly. Ino spoke Shikamaru's name trying to hold him back. Shikamaru spared Ino a glance. He had to do that. Sakura was going to say things she did not mean, and confuse herself even more. He had always been suspicious of her and Naruto's relationship after he returned from his trip with Master Jiraiya. She obviously changed. So did him. But she saw him differently. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, even to herself.

He sighed deeply. "Look, we know Naruto would never do this without a real reason. Even a completely bone head like him would need a real reason to do some of the things he is doing. As we figured out, he must have found something out. And according to him, this something is about Danzo. Yes, none of us here have a love for Danzo and his ways, but he is our Hokage. Naruto probably did not come to any of us, for fear of dragging us into being executed ourselves. He could not come to us, so he sought out people who were also rejected by society. Remember, they have not done anything to Konoha. It is pretty obvious, he is their leader. This most likely explains why they have stayed away from us for as long as did, until they broke in a stole a bunch of scrolls. This is Naruto we are talking about. He always has something up his sleeve."

"So what are we going to do Shikamaru?" Choji asked his best friend.

The Nara heir turned his head to Sakura who still had her head down. "What do you think Sakura?"

Sakura was still for a moment before she spoke. "I don't know…" No one knew what to say to her. "I don't want to give up on him, but we can't go against our own people."

"How about we gather information?" everyone turned their heads to Neji. "Let us find out what Naruto is after. Plus, let's keep a close eye on Danzo. Maybe we can figure out what is really going on."

"But what you are suggesting is treason!" Kida exclaimed.

"Only if we get caught," corrected Neji with a small smirk on his face.

"Who are you and what have you done to the Neji we all know?" teased Ten Ten.

Neji continued after he glanced at Ten Ten out of the corner of his eye. "We gather information, put the pieces together, and fix things. I know all of you hate the way things are, especially with someone as shady as Danzo in charge of things. Who is with me?"

Slowly but with ever increasing confidence and speed, the whole group agreed to it.

Except Sakura.

Shikamaru thought she would be the first to volunteer, but she was strangely quiet.

"Sakura?" Ino tired getting her friend's attention. However, it seems Sakura did not hear her.

After a few more seconds of the pink medic's silence, Shikamaru decided to try and get Sakura out of her funk. "Sakura, what should we do with Naruto?"

At the sound of his name she looked up at him. "Oh…leave Naruto to me. But, I'm in."

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Somewhere along one of the streets of Konoha, walking in no real direction, deep in his favorite smut book, was the overgrown silver haired jonin known as Kakashi. He actually had been summoned by the Hokage this morning. His meeting with Danzo was an hour ago. He was late.

On purpose.

The way Danzo was lately, always being furious, Kakashi made the smart decision to avoid him as much as possible. Unfortunately, Kakashi was good. Because he was good Danzo sent him on mission after mission. He did not get much rest. But this also put Kakashi in a position of power. Because he was so good, Danzo would not dare do anything to push Kakashi away. The silver haired cyclops smiled.

Suddenly something appeared in front of Kakashi. He halted his forward movement and only slightly lowered his book to peer over the top of it to see a kneeling ANBU.

"Taichou," the female ANBU addressed Kakashi. Even out of ANBU, most of them still address him as such. "The Hokage requests your presence….again."

Kakashi's only response was the slight nod of head. The ANBU disappeared.

The copy ninja sighed. He knew what Danzo wanted to talk about. Naruto. There was a lot of things to talk about on that subject, all of which Kakashi was smart enough not to address Danzo with.

Minutes later, Kakashi was walking down the longer-than-it-needs-to-be corridor leading to Danzo's over-sized office. The ANBU flanking either side of the double doors opened them as he approached. Kakashi was greeted by the sight of Danzo at his desk with the elders standing to one side and the ROOT ANBU captain. Kakashi stopped before the desk as all eyes were on him.

"Thank you for coming," said Koharu gazing at the copy ninja through her slightly open eyes. Kakashi always wondered if she could ever see at all.

"I suppose you are calling me here to discuss my second wayward student?" Kakashi was always very good at putting two and two together. Plus the little show Naruto put on made sure the entire village was going to hear about it. Hence, why Kakashi was standing in front of some old people.

"Yes," affirmed Danzo. "We want you to tell us everything you can about the Nine Tails jinchuriki. Being his former teacher, you could tell us a lot about his weaknesses and his habits so we can retrieve him and return him Konoha's protection."

Kakashi did not like the way Danzo was speaking about Naruto. The old Hokage had no respect for the boy…no man. That was obvious by the way Danzo refused to use Naruto's name. The silver haired jonin was aware of how much dislike Danzo had toward Naruto and his father. Danzo made Naruto sound like a piece of property instead of a human. However, Kakashi kept is anger about of it. He had other ways of getting back at them...

"I couldn't tell you much," said Kakashi with such a care free tone, he even threw gazing out the window just to put the cherry on top of the preverbal middle finger to the village elders.

Homura took a step forward. "You must tell us. This is important to the safety of the village."

Kakashi snapped his on exposed eye at the old retired ninja. "You want me to give you I information that was has both changed and is most likely incorrect? Do you know when the last time I saw my student? Three years ago. In that time how much interaction have I had with him? None."

Kakashi was, once again, glad he was wearing a mask so they did not see the small, evil smirk that graced his hidden face. He just lied the Hokage and the village elders. Right to their faces.

"Where are you going with this Kakashi?" Homura asked.

The ex-ANBU sighed and closed his eye for a moment. Where they really that blinded and stupid? He looked back at them. "What else do you want me to say? That he is a very powerful ninja, trained by both me and Master Jiraiya. He inherited his father's signature technique and has mastered Sage art. This and everything else about it practically the whole village already knows."

"We know that Kakashi," stated Danzo, "We need information on what makes him tick, or what his greatest weaknesses are. We need them now Kakashi."

Kakashi remained silent as he thought about what to say next. He already lied to them, so why not keep going?

"He is hardheaded, brash, doesn't think ahead, jumps into things with no hesitation…well that is how he used to be."

All three elders made sounds of confusion, Koharu spoke first. "What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious? He is not the same person he once was. Look at what the Blue Flame did. It was calculated and patient, not something that Naruto…was."

"Silence!" spat Danzo. His face was blood red. He had heard enough about the Blue Flame and the Nina Tails Brat. "We have heard enough. We will summon you when I have your next mission. Dismissed."

Kakashi bowed slightly before turning heel and walked out. With his hands in his pockets, the silver haired ninja made his way from the Hokage….monstrosity if that is what you want to call it. He started to turn away to the direction of his home when he stopped.

Something caught his eye.

Something very out of place. Something no one has seen since…him. Kakashi went over a plucked out the item out of the wall and quickly put it in his back holster before heading off in a direction very few people go. He had been a bunch of times. However this was the first time _he_ had come.

After a few more minutes of walking, Kakashi turned a corner into a complex alley way that opened up into a small courtyard. This old, rundown place. No one comes here anymore. It was one of the few places that sort of survived the destruction. But because they did no one came back because of the painful memories that dwelled here. Everyone except Kakashi that is.

His lone exposed eye wandered around looking for anything that was out of place. It appeared nothing was.

He knew better.

"That was rather reckless of you," Kakashi spoke out loud to seemingly no one in particular. He reached behind him and grabbed the item he picked up earlier. "What if someone saw it or you?"

"Not likely," replied a voice.

"It's been a while," Kakashi laughed.

A form disengaged from behind a large bush. "Yes it has, Kakashi-sensei." The ever present big goofy smile present on Naruto's face.

"You've been busy lately," stated Kakashi as he tossed the item to Naruto. The Missing-Nin caught the item with ease that came with years of training. Naruto took a second to look at it.

The infamous three pronged kunai used by the Fourth Hokage. Now it was Naruto's.

"So have you," countered the blond.

They both smiled at each other.

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DURING THE RAID ON KONOHA

 _"Three…two…one!" The three Bur Flame members started flying through hang signs simultaneously. They had to keep doing hand signs for thirty seconds. An eternity for a ninja. This was a tense moment. Their entire operation was based on this moment. They could succeed or completely fail. Noe one else moved or said a word. Finally the last sign was made. The seals on the door slowly started to burn away into nothing. Finally the last of a multi-layered seal system burned away leaving the door fully unlocked. It may not have been heard but the Blue Flame let out sigh of relief._

 _A small smirk was on the face of Itachi as he opened the double doors. Finally, things can really get going. The Blue Flame entered the room and everyone started going off to do their assigned jobs. They each had a set of scrolls to find. With these scrolls in their possession, their plans would accelerate. They first had to be returned to their rightful owner._

 _A few minutes passed before Itachi felt something. Just a tiny thing off. Could easily be passed over as nerves or something insignificant. But this is Itachi. He knew better. Slowly making his way out of the room, he spoke to no one on the way out._

 _Konan noticed this and hissed at him. "Itachi where are you going?"_

 _Itachi did not respond as he closed the door behind him._

Itachi made his way up the corridor. Another patrol was not due for another two minutes. He had some time. As he was about to make a left down another hallway…

"Aren't you supposed to be with your team?"

Itachi stopped walking. He kept quiet. The voice had become much better at hiding his chakra signature.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else?"

Itachi watched as the figure, who was leaning again the wall, disengaged himself from the wall. Slowly the light same to reveal Kakashi reading his normal smut book. Kakashi slowly put away his book as he reached Itachi. The two great ninja stared at each other for a moment.

"Is everything in place?" Itachi asked.

Kakashi nodded. "Just like we planned. The genjutsu worked. They moved all the scrolls together in the same room yesterday."

"Does Danzo expect you?"

Kakashi chuckled. "He has no idea."

"Naruto-kun hasn't mentioned you to the rest of the Blue Flame yet," Itachi informed.

The silver haired jonin shrugged. "I actually asked him not to."

"Why not," inquired Itachi.

"If the slimmest chance happens that my name is involved with the Blue Flame, which would mean a lot of trouble for me. Do not underestimate Danzo's ability to find out information. At this point I am more useful to Naruto alive and here in Konoha than actually with the Blue Flame."

"You make some good points, Taichou," Itachi understood.

"Itachi, you don't have to call me that anymore," Kakashi said shaking his head.

Now Itachi shrugged, "even after all these years, it is just a habit."

"How much longer do you guys need?" Kakashi asked.

"We just started," responded Itachi. "Because of you, it should not take that much longer."

"Well, I have to get going," Kakashi said as he turned around and started walking away. "Tell Naruto I said 'hi' and I can't wait to see him."

Itachi's eyebrow rose in question. "How do you…"

Kakashi stopped walking. And turned his head. "He will come and sneak into the village himself. But not to see me." Kakashi continued to walk away and disappeared around a corner.

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PRESENT DAY

"Is there a reason why you would risk yourself being captured by sneaking into the village that is trying to find you?" Kakashi asked yet he already knew the answer. He just wanted Naruto to voice his own stupidity. Or bravery. Either way, it was a dumb idea.

The goofy grin went even wider and he used one hand and scratched the back of his neck. His normal nervous habit. "Is it really that obvious?"

The silvered hair older ninja sighed with disappointment. "Naruto, what would happen if you get caught?"

Naruto brought his arm back down to his side and looked at Kakashi. "How can a clone be captured?"

Kakashi chuckled. Of course. He had to give it to Naruto. Always unpredictable, that was predictable. "Do you need anything before you go along your way?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes." From his hidden pocket in his Blue Flame cloak, Naruto took out a small scroll. "This is a panic seal. Once you put it on yourself, it disappears. To let us know that you are in trouble simply push a little chakra into it. And we will do our best to Reverse Summon you to safety."

Kakashi whistled. He had to admit. Naruto's growth was amazing. Now working on seals? Maybe he was smarter than people could ever give him credit for.

"Can it be detected?" asked Kakashi.

Naruto shook his head. "Only if they knew it was there. Put it somewhere inconspicuous to not draw attention anyways."

The Copy Ninja put the scroll in his jonin vest pocket. "Expecting things to go sideways so soon?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, but we want to just be prepared in case something bad does happen."

Kakashi walked forward and put his hand on the shoulder of his past student now turned rogue ninja. "I have to say I am proud of everything you have done. I know your Father would think the same thing."

Naruto was shocked by the sudden deepness the conversation took. After the initial shock, Naruto smiled. "Thanks Kakashi."

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Opening her kitchen window, Sakura breathed in the sweet fresh wind that was blowing into her apartment. She gazed out the window to see the last little bit of the sun's rays being subdued by the darkness of the night. The darkness even blotted out the moon's reflected light. Sakura thought it fitting. Even the bright things in life are over taken by darkness.

Especially in her life. Sasuke. And now Naruto.

She was being left behind. Again. Why was she always the last one to figure these things out? She worked and trained so hard to keep up with the prodigy and the dead-last. Yet, they both left her in the dust. Both were part of impossibly powerful organizations. One of them were going to change the world. It was almost like the world was teasing her and testing her to see who she cared more for. And whose side she would choose.

All this made her head hurt. She needed a shower.

Making her way to her bathroom, she stripped down and turned on her shower. As she waited, she checked her reflection. She had not changed so much since she began training with Tsunade. But she was obviously different. Much more grown up, yet the same old Sakura. When the kiss of steam reached her body she hopped into the shower and got herself clean.

Finally stepping out of the shower, she dried herself off. Garbing herself with a light pink shirt and her dark pink long pants, she was using the last little bit of her dry towel to get most of the moisture out of her hair. As she walked into her front room she finally sensed and presence in the room. However she did not sense them until she entered the room and almost laid eyes on…..him.

Sakura froze.

All thought and movement froze in pure shock. Was that? It couldn't be. She had to be….

The figure turned to look at her. "Hi, Sakura-chan," Naruto smiled.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey everyone! Sorry I meant to post this so much earlier, but basketball is eating up a lot of my time. Many a date or two. Nothing serious. Either way, so glad to be back! Hopefully got a good one for you. You see I have a concussion, so might have more time to write. Not sure. But it is also very hard to concentrate sometimes. So if some parts suck...not my fault lol.

Before I let you go, Guys, there have been a bunch of things happening around me and I have noticed a few things. Guys love is the only thing in this world that is constant and is the only thing that can fix everything. Swallow pride, end judging people, and just love. It can do miracles.

Well anyways...ENJOY!

The air had been sucked from the room. It was as if there was not twenty feet between them, but two. Cerulean locked with jade. He stood there, leaning against her kitchen countertop, arms crossed, in his now infamous Blue Flame cloak with the hood down letting all of his long, spiky hair out. She stood there, frozen in mid drying her hair. Should she pinch herself? Was this a dream? Or a really sick genjutsu? Either way Sakura was not believing what her eyes were seeing.

Naruto. Alive.

In her kitchen.

Her arms slowly dropped because her focus was not on the arms, but on the man standing in her kitchen. There he was. Her pillar, her sunshine, her best friend. Before he was dead, now he was alive and in her kitchen.

"N-n-n-naruto?" Sakura quietly asked, like if she was to speak loud enough, maybe she would wake up from her own sleep and ruin everything.

That big, goofy smile spread across his handsome face. "It's been a long time."

Suddenly, everything hit her at one. All the pain, all the emotions since that one fateful day came crashing back in on her. She relied on her instinct. Instinct told her to fight.

"Naruto," growled Sakura warningly. Suddenly she burst forward. Straight. At. Naruto. Fist cocked back.

Naruto was terrified. It had been years since he seen her scary like that. He first curled up to protect himself, yet his body hoped into action. After training with Itachi, you learn a few things. He quickly reached into his leg pouched, grabbed a kunai and threw it toward Sakura. Not at her. Toward her. The kunai barely had flown past her when Naruto sent a mental signal.

Sakura had just dodged…or maybe just passed a kunai that Naruto had just thrown. She was about to reach him when suddenly… he disappeared. Sakura stopped her movement when she felt a hand on her arm and a hand on her head. It reminded Naruto of when they first became a team, when Kakashi got behind him.

The pink haired girl was stunned. How did he get behind her so fast? He literally just disappeared. Then he was behind her. How? She tried moving but, she couldn't. Dang, Naruto was strong.

"Sakura," Naruto said calmly, "if we cause a ruckus that is too loud the whole village will know I am here. And that would be bad for both you and me." At his words Sakura seemed to almost calm down immediately. That was logical. Naruto? Logical? Okay maybe this was still a dream. "Ok? Listen I know you are mad at me, which you deserve to be. I did not come here to fight, but to explain everything. But I cannot to that if you are trying to pummel me to death, destroying the building in the process. Can we just please talk?"

Sakura completely relaxed. Yes, she was mad at him, but hearing his voice…it was enough to calm her. It had changed. Same old Naruto, just a bit deeper. She slightly nodded her head. "Yes, let's talk."

She felt Naruto slowly release his grasp of her. She straightened herself and turned toward him. Laying her gaze on Naruto she finally noticed just how much taller he was. Yes, she had been with him for days and gotten used to his size, but now knowing who he was, it was different. She drank in his appearance. Those eyes. Those eyes did not change at all. And she missed them. They were like an open ocean you could lose yourself and drown in them. His hair. It had grown. Not overly much. It was a nice length. Now knowing who his father was, his hair was almost like his father's hair. His whiskers were a bit longer than she remembered. Slightly thicker as well. His face was a little more angled. It gave him a much older look.

While Sakura was giving Naruto a good look he was doing the same. Man, she was hot! She had become more beautiful than he remembered! Her unique colored hair had grown out to just past her shoulders. Sometimes during the mission she occasionally tied it back in a pony-tail. As for right now, she let it hang naturally. It looked great. Her body had definitely developed. To Naruto, it was the perfect body. Great, beautiful curves that really complimented her now grown bust. Those beautiful eyes were just as intoxicating as ever. They were a bit darker than Naruto remembered. He assumed that was due to the fact Sakura cried a lot more than she should. He always knew when she cried, her eyes got darker. It saddened him. However, as of right now, he was the happiest man on the planet.

The two ninja made their way to Sakura's couch, led by the medic herself. She took a seat on her couch. Naruto took in her apartment. It was very simple. It was obvious this was the home of a shinobi. Sakura was not home much. No plants. A few pictures here and there. The walls were a light pink in contrast to the white drapes framing the windows, all of which were drawn because Naruto did not want to be spotted. Naruto's eye landed on a certain picture on a side table between the main couch and the love seat, beneath a small lamp. Naruto walked around Sakura to get to it. She did not stop him. She knew he would find it eventually.

Naruto stopped before and slowly picked it up. It was the picture of Team 7… when they were Team 7. All of them, including Sasuke.

"This picture was a life time ago," breathed Naruto. He could not believe she kept it.

Sakura nodded from her now sitting position on her couch. "Yea back in the good old days."

Even Naruto could tell she felt a bit awkward at the moment. There was more than an entire book of thoughts and subjects that have not been said between the two teen ninjas. And soon, it was all about to come pouring out.

Naruto laughed a little at her choice of words. _The good old days_. "Yea, back when we were all still in Konoha." Naruto replaced the picture where he found it and straightened himself, mentally preparing himself for the berating he was about to get from Sakura.

Instead of angry words being thrown at him like poison laced kunai, Naruto only heard silence. Which confused him and put him off a bit. Finally something reached his ears. This was a sound he knew too well. It was Sakura crying. His normal Naruto thinking kicked in. Sakura-chan first. He turned around to find Sakura standing before him and not on the couch.

"S-sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. Sakura's head was lowered so he could not see her face. But the sounds and the shaking movements of her shoulders were enough to give all the information he needed.

Naruto slowly put his hand out to place on her shoulder, but before he could touch her, her head snapped up and she looked directly into his eyes. Naruto saw the waterfalls coming from Sakura's eyes. "How could you leave me?" Sakura almost completely screamed. Sakura starting pounding on Naruto's chest with her clenched fists. "What is wrong with you, you big jerk!" She started hitting Naruto harder and harder. It didn't hurt Naruto physically like her words were doing mentally. "You go and try to get yourself killed! You let me believed you were dead! You go off to Kami knows where, leaving me here all alone! Now you show up and try to kill yourself in a whole new fashion by threatening the Hokage! Is. Any. Of. This. Getting. To. You. Naruto?" each point of the last sentence was synced to a pound to the chest and each hit got slower and slower.

Finally, it all came crashing in. Sakura threw herself against Naruto and started to almost wail. She buried her face into his chest. Naruto almost lost his step as the weight of Sakura hit him almost like running into a brick wall. His eyes widened in shock. He was prepared for many things on and off the battlefield, the pink haired beauty crying on him was not one of those things. She kept crying into him. The tall blond was frozen. He did not know what to do next. Finally he gave into instinct and cautiously started to wrap his arms around her in comfort. But, let us be honest. This is Naruto, he has no idea how girls really work, or how to handle them. He never did get the kind of attention from girls when he was younger. They always thought of him as a pest. The blond rogue awkwardly half hugged half patted Sakura's back. She kept crying and crying. Naruto was just content by the small physical interaction between the two.

The pinked hair girl's crying started to slow and quiet down, ending into just the sniffles. She kept using her hand to wipe away her tears. Occasionally, wiping her tears on Naruto himself. She fisted some of his cloak into her hands as if that little bit was the only thing reminding herself he was actually here.

"I missed you."

It was almost inaudible. Almost missed. Only the ears of a trained ninja could pick it up. It also helped that Naruto had the fox-enhanced senses, so hearing everything was not that difficult. It was what was said that had Naruto's brain in a complete fuzz and confused state.

She missed him?

That sounds like something she would say to Sasuke after being apart for five minutes, not Naruto. Naruto almost had to check the room to see if Sasuke was here. It was only the two of them. Naruto and Sakura.

"S-sakura?" He looked down onto the top of her head as if looking for answers to his current predicament. She adjusted herself to look up into the beautiful blue eyes.

She looked him dead in the eyes. "I missed you, Naruto."

Naruto felt his heart almost explode at those words. It was true. She…missed him?

"Y-you're not mad?"

Sakura sniffled again, while disengaged from the physical embrace that Naruto held her in. She held a frown on her face. "Mad would be an understatement, Naruto." Naruto got a tad fearful and depressed at this statement. His shoulders slumped a little as he looked away to not see the disappointment on her face. Sakura smirk a tad. She could still after him, even after all this time.

"But, I'm glad you're alive." His eyes snapped back to hers. He stood up taller at this. Then it grew. That priceless smile. The smile that was all hers. The one she missed the most.

A few minutes later both teens sat a Sakura's couch with fresh teas in their hands. The teas were still not as good as Ino's but Sakura learned a few things from her platinum blonde haired friend. A few minutes they sat quietly letting the tea calm their nerves. Both at much to ask, and much to say.

"Sorry for getting your shirt wet," apologized Sakura.

Naruto lightly chuckled. "It's ok Sakura-chan, it will dry."

Sakura was quiet. Not looking at Naruto, but rather her cup of tea. The words died on her tongue. So much she wanted to say, for three years she wondered what she would say to him if she ever had the chance to speak with Naruto again. He was here. Sitting next to her. Alive! Why wasn't she saying anything?

Finally the words found traction. "What happened?"

Naruto couldn't look to Sakura. He heard so many emotions in her voice. Naruto sighed as he remembered that fateful day, lifetimes ago. "Where do I begin?"

"The start is usually the best place," encourage Sakura. She watched him off the corner of her jade eyes, noticing how he avoided her gaze.

Naruto had prepared for this. Why was he finding it so hard to talk about things with her? Well her beauty was a distraction, but that was not it. "Well… remember a few days before…you know… we sparred?" Sakura nodded. She remembered like it was yesterday. Hard to forget one of the last times you saw your best friend alive. "You see, Danzo had been made Hokage by the elders of the village. Yet, he was not Hokage fully yet. He needed all the jonin to acknowledge him as Hokage first. However, he had almost all the power of a full blown Hokage. He had sent squads, mostly of his personal ANBU to watch me. The man does not trust me. He wants what power I hold inside of me. He wants the Fox.

"However, he could not make a move on me until he had become Hokage officially. I knew they were following me, waiting for his order to either attack or capture me. Well, obliviously, he somehow became Hokage. Danzo sent for me. He brought me before the council and informed me I was to be put to death because I was 'too dangerous to the village's safety'. Obviously I fought back. I was able to escape the ROOT ANBU for a bit. That is when I left you a note." Naruto finally looked over at Sakura. She was watching him. Closely. Naruto sighed and continued. "After that. For some reason I found myself at the top of the Hokage monument. The ROOT ANBU found me there. We fought. During the fight I came up with the idea to make it look I had been killed. I launched a Rasen-Shuriken at the ground and was almost overtaken by it. That gave me plenty of time to escape outside of Konoha. I had some strength left so I summoned a toad and they summoned me to live among them until I got back on my feet. After that…well that is an even longer story."

The blonde finally looked over at Sakura, who was now standing up. Naruto was confused, he thought she wanted to hear this. The pink hair girl did not go far. She stopped at bench, opened the top and grabbed something from inside of it. She walked back and sat down slowly. When she sat Naruto got a good look at the object in her hand.

It was the scroll he left her.

"I kept it," informed Sakura. "It was almost like a written promise that I held onto. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept me going. Whenever I felt down or something bad happened, I read it. Brought a smile to my face… every time." She looked over at the man sitting next to her. Both eyes were as wide as dinner plates. It was Naruto's turn to be in shock. He never had any idea she would even keep the thing. Could she maybe, possibly think of him as… no, there was no way?

Why was her heart beating so fast? This was Naruto! And she missed him. She took a play out of his book and was the unpredictable one now. "You kept it?"

"That is what I said…" Sakura paused and waited before adding…"Baka."

Silently both teens smiled at the true return of her pet name for him. It had a somewhat of a loving ring, even if was meant to be an insult. However Naruto's frown returned as he was afraid to ask the question. His curiosity got the better of him.

"Sakura-chan," addressed Naruto, he saw Sakura turn her head slightly towards him. "What do you really think of what I am doing?"

"What even are you doing Naruto?" counter questioned Sakura. "What are you thinking, you idiot? Do you have a death wish? Facing Danzo? That's crazy! Naruto, the man is insane! He has the biggest bounty on your head, and has all of Konoha looking for you!"

Naruto smiled at the information. "Good."

Sakura's jaw dropped. Good? Has Naruto fully lost his mind? "Why is that so good?"

Naruto turned and looked at her, giving her the look as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "There are many reasons why that is good. One of them being is, it will drive Danzo's focus outside of Konoha and have him a blind eye to what happens inside."

Sakura was still skeptical. "But why would you want that? Besides after what you guys just pulled, Danzo will triple the security around the village."

Naruto smiled that foxy smile. Sakura knew that smile. It was the one he always had on right before he did a prank or came up with one crazy idea. "You're smart. Figure it out."

The pink haired medic ninja wanted to almost knock him out for that small comment. She could have easily taken that the wrong way and run with it, yet something stopped her. Why? Oh, that's right, Naruto just asked her to do something crazy. Think. That was not the crazy part. The crazy part was that it was Naruto saying 'think'. The guy who always jumped head first without looking or thinking, told the rational, over thinker to use her brain. Mind. Blown.

So Sakura thought. Hard. What was the purpose of having Danzo's focus elsewhere besides Konoha? Naruto and his little band already snuck in and stole important scrolls. What else were they after? Sakura had no idea.

"What are you planning Naruto? I don't get it." Unfortunately for Sakura, a bigger fox smile was her only response. She knew he was not going to tell her.

"You'll know what it is. Trust me."

Sakura huffed at his lack of information. It was like that when they first unknowingly met. It was the same thing now. Sakura liked to know things. Especially if it was about her best friend in the world.

"You don't trust me Naruto?" This tiny jab apparently had a huge impact. Naruto suddenly got off the couch and walked to the other side of the room to a window. Using one finger he peered outside using the small opening in the fabric of the drapes.

"It's not about trust with this whole situation." He turned away from the window and walked over to the mantle on the opposite side of the room looking at the objects on it, still keeping his back to her. "There are many reason why I did what I did. I did it for Konoha, even if it may not seem so, I did. I also did it to protect my precious people, like you, Sakura. The things that need to be done, I could not do in Konoha. I would have put you guys even more in danger than I already had. Danzo is not the only threat to the world. He is only the internal cancer that is slowly eating away at everything it touches. There are other threats out there that need to be dealt with. Like I said before, our goal, our true mission is to rid the world of corruption and return the world to peace. Someone has to be the one to stop the cycle. That is why I am doing what I am doing."

Sakura got up at this and marched right over to the tall blond man. "But why does it have to be you? Naruto, we need you here."

Naruto turned around so quick his white cloak snapped loudly. "I was sentenced to death Sakura. I was betrayed by the village."

Sakura shook her head violently, refusing to believe those words were leaving his mouth. "No, you were betrayed by Danzo. We are still here Naruto. Your friends! We didn't betray you.."

Before Sakura could continue Naruto finished her uncompleted statement, "Danzo betrayed me. He is the village's leader, and you are honor bound to follow him!" Sakura was shocked at the tone Naruto had. Was this the same Naruto she once knew? Naruto realized his mistake and calmed himself before he continued. "But, I know he does not speak for you as individuals. Danzo is the Blue Flame's target, not Konoha."

"But attacking Danzo means an attack on Konoha," Sakura frantically pointed out, thinking Naruto was making a terrible move.

"Not if Konoha realized who the real Danzo was," Naruto pointed out. "If he could be exposed for the fraud and the horrible person he was, no one would follow his orders."

Sakura's eyes slowly widened as her brain finally made all the connections. Naruto was going to defeat Danzo from the inside! Naruto may be dull sometimes but he can really surprise you when it counts!

"Okay, but how? Even we have been trying to get information and have been completely unsuccessful!"

Naruto smirked. "We can get information on both inside and outside."

"How would we communicate? I'm pretty sure it would be obvious some of us disappeared and we don't want to risk you getting captured," reasoned Sakura. Naruto chuckled. "What's so funny?"

"We already have a way of doing that."

Again, Sakura was taken back by surprise. Key word being 'again'. "How?"

The foxy grin graced his handsome face gain. "That's a secret."

Sakura playfully huffed. "Oh come one, not even a hint?" She gave him the playful hurt eyes.

Naruto chuckled. "Nope."

Sakura was about to say something when a knock came from Sakura's door. Both teens whipped around silencing their conversation to listen in to see who it could be. Suddenly a voice came from outside. "Sakura? You home?"

Naruto looked down at Sakura in silent question of who it might me. Sakura mouthed back _Ino_. Naruto got scared that he had been discovered. Thank Kami that wasn't the case. Neither teen moved as Ino knocked again. They both had a mental note to each other to stay silent and hopefully she would go away. After a few more tense moments, faint footsteps began and faded away. Apparently Ino thought Sakura was asleep or something.

Both ninja let out a sigh of relief. And smiled at each other. Suddenly both teen saw the situation they were in. Naruto's arms were around Sakura protectively, while Sakura had one arm around Naruto and the other hand was griping his shirt under his cloak. Eyes widened, and faces burned and both teens jumped back, not wanting to look at each other.

"Naruto can I ask you something?" Naruto turned around to see Sakura still holding her back to him. "Do you remember? Remember on the mission, the night at the cave?"

Naruto knew at once what she must be talking about. Them. The conversation they had while on watch. Him. Her. His feelings. Her feelings. Their feelings. Where they were. What were they? They were not comrades anymore, technically.

Naruto remained unusually silent. Sakura's heart was beating so fast. Ever since that incident at the entrance, ever since the conversation with all of her friends, all she has thought about was... him. Only him. She had never thought about Sasuke this much or in this way. She had thought about it over and over and over and over. Her mind went in circles, yet it all came abundantly clear to her. She thought.

"I want to know…for sure…that was all truth wasn't it?" Naruto could not look at Sakura. She was looking at him, her face burning. She had thought of this before, what she would day, what she would do.

Naruto stayed silent, his mind just in a whirlwind. He had no idea she was going to bring that up. He was not ready for it. At all. Should he even say thing? Deny it all? He could not. He should not. That would be lying and this is Sakura. She knows him, very well. Crap. What was he going to do?

"Naruto?"

Hearing her say his name gently, made him lose focus and slightly turn to see her. She was solely focused on him. Looking into those cerulean eyes, she was silently begging him to answer. His armor broke. She always had that power over him. She knew. So he might as tell her the whole truth.

He looked away slightly, closed his eyes, and sighed. Slowly opening his eyes, he came to be staring into the fields of jades that made up the eyes of Sakura. Here was the moment he waited for and feared for so many years.

"Sakura… everything I said to you was true. The story I told you was about us…. Old Team 7. I have always seen you as a perfect angel. You were the reason I got up in the morning, the last thing I thought about before I went to bed. All I wanted was a chance to tell you how I felt. I guess the thing that held me back was that promise I gave you. I only want you to be happy Sakura. I know you are in love with Sasuke. So I guess I could not tell you because I felt like you still hated me for not getting him back to you…."

Naruto stopped because she saw he was crying full on now. "N-Naruto.."

Without warning she flung herself into him. He barely had enough time to catch her. Sakura once again cried into his shirt. Between the cries she spoke. "You… baka…. why… do… you… always… have… to… do… that?"

Naruto was confused. But hugged her tighter none-the-less. After a short while she calmed down. She gripped his shirt even tighter. She did not want to let him go. She finally realized what must have been true all along. Naruto loved her. And she loved him.

"You baka."

Naruto looked down to see Sakura's beautiful face disengage from his chest to look up at him.

"I don't hate you." Sakura stated. She could tell this shocked Naruto a bit. "That promise was a promise to a 12-year old's immature dream. I do care for Sasuke, he was my first love, even if the love was not reciprocated. But I love him only like a brother. He is family, Naruto. He is part of our family. I don't want you to kill yourself over that silly, stupid promise. If you get yourself killed, I don't know what I would do. I thought you were already dead. Naruto, I'm so sorry, it took you dying for me to realize…who I really love."

Naruto's heart was beating so fast, he thought he might just die. Did she just admit she loved him? There was no way.

Naruto shook his head. "No, Sakura, I don't want you to like me over pity or…"

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed. "Are you questioning if I love you? Think I might be using you to get to Sasuke? You think there is no way I could love you?"

Naruto felt ashamed was he said, "Yes."

Sakura's heart dropped. How could he? She just told him she loved him! He should be happy. But, she could not blame him. She had to blame herself. She is the reason he did not believe her. Her obsession with Sasuke lead Naruto to believe that he never had a chance.

Sakura lowered her head and placed a hand on Naruto's chest. Naruto could not see her face, but his had the look of shock. "Naruto, I have no reason for you to believe me. You give yourself every reason to not believe that I love you. Naruto, remember back when we were on mission to a small village to protect it from renegades?"

Naruto remembered. It was a short but easier mission, untrained renegades were harassing a small village in the Land of Fire. They spend four nights in a double level barn. But this was a time that meant a lot to the development of Naruto and Sakura's relationship. They had both promised each other they would always be there for each other. No matter what.

"Of course."

Her hand slowly found its way to his check, making him slightly blush. "We made that promise to each other because we meant it." Sakura looked up into his beautiful blue eyes. "Naruto, I may not have known it at the time, but I think I was making that promise because I guess I felt like you were the only one who really cared, the only one who has been there for me. Maybe I started falling for you then…I don't know… maybe it was before. All I know is, I meant what I said Naruto. But now, now is different. I really truly mean it. Naruto, I want to always be there for you, in every aspect."

Naruto's smile grew as her final words came out. He leaned into her hand with his head to feel her touch even more. Sakura found this cute and rubbed his cheek with her thumb in response. The two stayed this way for a few minutes just enjoying each other's company.

Finally Naruto said it. "Sakura… I love you."

There it was. Finally. Sakura's heart almost couldn't take it anymore. She embraced him as tight as she could. "I love you too."

Naruto returned Sakura's embrace. He knew she was not lying when she said that. When you know someone for so long, you just know.

Naruto sadly had to end this sooner than he wanted. Slowly he released his grip, Sakura…did not. She looked up at him in question. He smiled down at her.

"I need to leave Sakura." Sakura's heart dropped. There was no way those words came out of the mouth of Naruto Uzum….Namikaze. Oh yea about that…

"Naruto… is the Fourth Hokage really your father?"

Naruto stilled. "Yes."

Sakura step backed only a little. "How do you know?"

Naruto closed his eyes and reached out for her bringing the pink haired beauty back towards him he put his forehead onto hers. This cute little action made Sakura smile and feel butterflies all over. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He slowly opened his eyes to look right into hers.

"Remember when I almost went full Nine-Tails when I was fighting Pein?" Sakura slowly nodded at this. "He was the one who restrained the seal as good as the day he cast the jutsu, sealing Kurama inside of me." Sakura stopped….who? Naruto noticed her look and disengaged his forehead from hers. "This is part of the long story that made up the years away from the village, but short version is I became friends with the Nine-Tailed Fox. His name is Kurama."

Again, Sakura was wide-eyed in shock. This should just not be surprising anymore. The man in her arms was the one could make what was thought impossible possible. "So you are basically Konoha royalty?"

Naruto nodded. "Well, not while Danzo is still in power. But one day that all will change. As I said before, I have to go. I don't want to get you in trouble. If I am discovered with you, your life is over."

Sakura tightened her arms on her…boyfriend? "Can I come with you?"

Naruto shook his head. The made Sakura frown. "Sakura, I would love for you to come with me so I know that you are always safe, but have to stay." She began to speak when a finger was placed on her lips to silence her. "Remember your parents, our friends, what if you were to suddenly disappear? Danzo would freak and kill people just for the annoyance. Trust me, one day we will be together, this will all be over."

Sakura did not even have to question that it would happen. But she did have one. "But when? I just saw you since you 'died' and you are already leaving….Naruto I am tired of being alone." She drooped her head only to have it caught by a single finger to have it lifted up to stare back into those infamous cerulean bye eyes.

"You are never alone Sakura," Naruto said. He let her go and reached into his cloak. Naruto pulled out an object. It was a necklace. On a simple silver chain hung a simple small pink diamond held by a small Sakura flower. Her jaw dropped. It was beautiful. Naruto slowly put it around her neck. Then stepped back to let her examine it. She took it in the details. It looked almost real.

"Oh Naruto, it's beautiful!" She flung herself again into his arms again but this time she didn't hold back. Naruto's smile was a wide as it could be. She withdrew a bit but rested one hand on his chest.

"You can keep that. Remember that I am always with you. I had the chain made long enough so you can hide it beneath your shirt."

Sakura smiled and took one more look at the beautiful flower before looking back up again. "When am I going to see you next?"

Naruto looked away from her and out the window as if looking for the answer. Finally he looked back to his…girlfriend? Either way he could spend the rest of his life looking at her. "I don't know. Soon maybe. I can maybe try my best to sneak in and see you, but we will be very busy soon."

Before Naruto could speak some more Sakura interrupted. "But when can I join you? I want to fight! I want to be with you!"

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto sweetly said. "I know I want you with me too. But it is still too dangerous now. Later, yes. But you will know when it will be time. When it is time, I will have my inside man help you get out."

Sakura had to ask. "Who is it?"

Naruto winked. "Sorry Sakura-chan, can't say… yet."

Sakura began to playfully pout.

Naruto grinned. "I promise, I will come back for you."

Slowly Naruto reached down and kissed Sakura on the cheek. As he pulled away he felt a soft hand at the back of his head keeping him from retreating any farther, then the feeling of soft lips capturing his. Shock overtook him for a second before he started the sweet emotional return of the kiss. The two young lovers remained this way for some time before both came back up for air. Sakura turned her head and rested it against his chest.

"I want to remain this way forever," Sakura said quietly.

"Me to," agreed Naruto. However, "I'm sorry Sakura-chan a must go."

After another shorter kiss Naruto and Sakura reluctantly let go of each other. Each drank the full image of each other in as if they were dehydrated.

"How are you going to get out of the village?" Sakura asked worriedly.

Naurto's foxy grin appeared and he winked. "It's hard to capture a clone."

Suddenly Naruto puffed into smoke and out of existence. Sakura couldn't help but smile. He was so unpredictable. She already missed him. Subconsciously she grabbed her newest jewelry dangling from her neck. Doing that gave her comfort. He may not be here. But she was always in her heart. And the necklace was evidence of what he would do to be with her. She knew, she felt it. The love was real.

"Be careful, Naruto-kun."

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Standing behind a large table, surrounded by the de-hooded Blue Flame, Naruto reluctantly grabbed his head from the amount of information that he just received from his clone he sent to Konoha.

"Naruto?" He raised his head to see Konan giving him a look of concern.

"It's nothing, just a bit tired."

Itachi nodded. "It is late. Has been a trying few days for everyone. Let's get some sleep."

All of the Blue Flame walked out of their meeting room and headed to their rooms. Naruto took a left out of the large building when he felt a presence next to him. He did not even have to look.

Itachi. "So when were you going to tell me about your… trip?"

The real Naruto smiled. "I have loads to tell you."

Itachi sighed. Will Naruto ever learn?

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Deep in the belly of a dark cave, sat a lone figure with an arm draped over his knee and a long sword leaning against his shoulder. His eyes were closed in concentration.

On the far side of the door, a large metal door screeched and scratched open. A slender figure entered the room and only stopped before Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun, The Nine-Tails is still alive."

Red, glowing eyes opened. He stood and looked at the female in front of him. "Let's go, we have work to do. Don't tell Madara."

"Hai, Sasuke-kun."


	11. Chapter 11

HELLLO YALL! IM BACK!

Oh my gosh I missed you all! I am so so so so sorry it took me so long to post a new chapter. I was coaching basketball and that took up literally all of my time. We did better than everyone ever thought we would. We did really well. Made it all the way to the championship and the lost... I am so proud of my boys. Anyways, I am back with another chapter. hope you enjoy it!

BTW thank you so much for all the fantastic reviews, it really helps out to keep me going.

sometimes people need a pick-me-up, so guys, you all are beautiful and let no one tell you different!

ENJOY!

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The next morning brought crisp air, thick mist and the rising sun. Four blurs bounced off a high branch in the trees. The blur in front sported longish black hair that was spiked up in the back. Sasuke led Team Taka towards the rising sun.

An annoyed growl came from the back of the group. "Where are we going?"

For every action there is an opposite….

"SUIGETSU! SHUT UP! DON'T QUESTION SASUKE-KUN!"…..reaction.

"Karin," a calm voice warned.

The fiery redhead' attention reverted back to her precious Uchiha leader. "Yes Sasuke-kun?" said in a much nicer voice.

The duck butt haired, stoic man remained silent looking ahead of the group. His eyes narrowed as they approached a lone temple in the middle of a random forest. The rogue team landed at the edge of the clearing that surrounded the old temple. Nature had once again made its claim. Trees and other plants were starting to overtake the whole temple.

A bored sigh was heard at the back of the group. "What is even here?"

Before Karin could berate Suigetsu for the stupid question, Sasuke answered. "This is an ancient Uchiha meeting place, it might have something we need to capture the Nine-Tails with ease."

An evil smirk covered the Uchiha's face.

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Naruto sighed deeply while rubbing his temple with one hand.

It was rare for Naruto to get headaches thanks to his furry friend, but this headache was being caused by more than one of the hardheaded members of the Blue Flame. They were once again in their meeting room. For once, Konan and Anko were on the same page and thought the same thing. When that happened, it became difficult to get anything done and convince the two women of anything else.

"It's a crazy idea!" Anko loudly stated.

"A suicidal mission to be sure," said the blued haired rogue, backing up her fellow female comrade.

Naruto needed them to agree with this. "What is wrong with it?"

"First off, you, a presumed dead jinchuriki, now alive, with a capture on site order, want to personally go. Second, you want to go to the Land of Lightning, straight into Kumogakure. Third, you want to seek _HIM_ out? The brother of the Raikage! What part of that is NOT insane?" Loudly reasoned out Anko. "Hey, I am all for crazy ideas and missions, but even this… I would avoid this mission. So why do we have to do it?"

Konan nodded the whole time in agreement, keeping her eyes on Naruto for his response.

Naruto could not take it anymore, he had to be straight with her. "Because without him, none of our plans will work."

This statement choked up both Konan and Anko. Their faces got even more serious. However, there was still one person who was almost never stumped. "But why do we need him?" Mia, of course.

Naruto started to figure out why Itachi was always sighing around people. They just were not getting the idea. He sighed. Standing up to his full height, wrapping his hands behind his back, he slowly turned around and walked to the window to look over the toad-built city-village.

"What is our ultimate goal?" Naruto asked out loud too no one in particular. He let the question hang in the air for the moment before he turned around to face the Blue Flame. "World peace. For this to happen we need to break the current way the world is run and how peace is maintained. We all know the story of how the power was kept around the world. The distribution of jinchuriki. Without these human weapons, the nations will have much of their power taken from them. As we know, most of the jinchuriki have been taken by the Akatsuki. We are still looking for two more, hopefully they are still alive.

"Without the power of the Tailed Beasts in the hands of either the nations or the Akatsuki, it becomes much easier to achieve peace. For us to achieve that we need the help of the rest of the jinchuriki. Even if they all refuse our help, they can no longer be used as weapons to harm any more people."

Naruto walked back to the large table and looked around at the Blue Flame.

"We all here swore we would do whatever it takes to obtain world peace. But we also swore to be different. We swore to expose the darkness in the world, bringing it all into the light. The jinchuriki are just a big part of the problem in the world, because they are used, slandered and viewed as subhuman.

"Evils like this are why we are here! If we are going to face the world, would we not want to have the most powerful people on our side?"

Konan stared right back at the blond jinchuriki. It was like she was looking into his very soul. One day, when she was not a mad at him, he needs to ask her how she does that.

Naruto wanted to push a bit further to get her to his side, but he knew, with Konan, push too hard, you will find it right back in your face. There was a silver lining with her. Not too much, not too little, but just right. Naruto because a bit nervous when silence was his only response. He gave her a big confident grin. Maybe that would do it.

Maybe.

A deep sigh escaped the lips of Konan. She looked back up at Naruto. "Fine."

The grin became a smile.

"But I'm going with you."

His smile disappeared. "Why? We need you to go and finish finding the last Jinchuriki!"

Konan's finger found its way to Naruto's mouth to silence him. "But I am coming with you, and before you start complaining and say that I cannot go, I am going to keep you in line and out of trouble and out of Danzo's hands."

Naruto knew there was no arguing with her. As her finger withdrew, he sighed and nodded.

Turning back to the rest of the Blue Flame, Naruto spoke up. "It's time for phase two of the plan! Anko will lead a team to find the last two jinchuriki, and I will lead a team to reach the Eight-Tails jinchuriki. Ranmaru, Gozu, Yukimaru, and Guren, you go with Anko. Itachi, Mia, and… Konan are coming with me."

Everyone nodded, agreeing with their leader's words. "Good luck everyone!" Chanted out Mama Sage Toad.

The Blue Flame filed out of the building heading towards the pools to start their assignments. Konan made her way to Naruto's side. "So when were you going to tell me about what happened when you send a clone into Konoha?" Naruto rolled his eyes and looked back at Itachi, silently asking, 'why'.

Itachi just shrugged.

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High in the Hokage tower, Danzo sat in his office quickly pouring over intelligence reports of Kumo. Danzo would never admit to anyone, but with this annoying bug of the Blue Flame, he would need some help from outside of his grasp. No one knew where they went. He knew that Kumo had looked into the Blue Flame at some point, but obviously they never formally announced it. What Kage would admit a failure? Maybe Kumo would have an idea….

A knock at the door broke his concentration as his lone exposed eye looked up.

"Enter."

Entered in walked Kakashi followed by two cloaked ANBU agents, one about Kakashi's size, and the other about a head shorter. The trio of current and past ANBU arrived before the old Hokage's ornate desk of wood.

Danzo looked up at the men in front of him with an analytical eye. "What I am about to tell you, does not leave this room." He paused to let the gravity of the order he just have sink in, then continued. "The Blue Flame is now a big thorn in our side, or many reasons. Not only because our jinchuriki is leading them, but they now have in their possession precious scrolls that contain top secret and dangerous jutsus by our previous Hokage, and sealing scrolls by the Uzumaki clan. We need those scrolls back."

One of the ANBU spoke up. "Is that what our mission is, Lord Hokage?"

Danzo slightly smirked. "In a way. Even with all the spies and influence we have, we still cannot find out where the Blue Flame resides. To that end, I am reaching out to Kumo. That is where you are going."

Kakashi's eye narrowed slightly. If Kumo got involved with Konoha in finding the Blue Flame, Naruto could be in a heap of trouble. Even though most villages would not put so many people in the field not to draw attention, they would not tell anyone about it. If Konoha was reaching out for help, this could be big.

"Are we going to search for them there? You may think they have Kumo connections?" asked the taller ANBU.

Danzo shifted to a tad more comfortable position in his seat. "I doubt it, but it is always nice to check up on the Raikage. He may be brash, but he is very smart, not to be underestimated. To that end, I have sent a message to the Raikage informing him of your arrivals. Since this is an official mission for the village, you are not wear any ANBU armor."

The ANBU knew an order. Both took off their masks to reveal both Yamato and Sai.

"But why choose us, Lord Hokage?" Sai asked.

The old Hokage leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. "Each of you know our jinchuriki very well, so this puts you at an advantage to find him. You know how he thinks, so go to Kumo, meet the Raikage, just do a quick search of Kumo for him and come back, I will have further orders for you then. Dismissed."

All three ninja bowed to their leader before rising and walking out as a team.

Toward the end of the hallway Sai spoke up. "Kakashi what are yo-"

Sai was interrupted by the silver haired cyclope's hand coming up to stop him. Kakashi's head turned slightly. "Not here."

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Pink hair whipped back and forth in the surprise wind. Sighing heavily Sakura wanted to teach her hair a lesson and pull it back into a messy bun but she was just too tired. She just finished a fifteen hour shift at the hospital and was walking home to just collapse.

She took the left around a corner down the street where her apartment was located. Slowly she grabbed the little charm that was hanging around her neck. It was the charm Naruto gave her two nights ago. She started to smile like an idiot. Every time she thought about Naruto or the necklace she could not stop giggling or smiling. Her pillar was back. He was alive.

It had been two days since Naruto was in her apartment. She had been very since then and had not been able to see anyone else. The hospital was somehow just packed with problems today and Tsunade was not in today for some reason so that left everything in Sakura's care. What could an ex-Hokage who is retired need a day off for? It did not really matter. Sakura did not care. She was happily in her la-la land in her head. Even now she was. So much so, she did not notice the figure that was quickly approaching her from behind.

Sakura's heart almost jumped out of her chest when someone grabbed her arm. She almost punched the person in the face until she stopped and realized it was her blond girl friend.

Ino almost was dragging Sakura along. "Ino?! What's going on where are you taking me?"

Ino spared Sakura a look as she pulled Sakura through the village. "You'll know and find out when we get there."

After a few minutes and growl from Sakura, the blonde haired girl dragged her exhausted best friend all the way to the Nara compound. Noticing this, Sakura got serious because she knew why she was here. Someone had found something out.

Now her mind went crazy, would she be able to tell everyone what happened two nights ago? She had not even seen Ino to tell her. Pus, Sakura was still processing the encounter with her now boyfriend of a rogue ninja. If she could barely believe it, how would anyone else would?

Whether she could tell them or not, she had to make a decision quick, Ino just dragged her past the gate of the Nara compound. Finding the right spot, Shikamaru was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes closed. As the two beauties approached he opened his eyes and pushed himself off the wall. "Everyone else is inside."

Ino and Sakura nodded as they went inside, followed by Shikamaru, who closed the door behind him carefully before activating the seal. Shikamaru joined the rest of the group on the floor.

Most of everyone expected Shikamaru to speak, instead Neji spoke. "Now I know this is last second and a lot of you had to make-up excuses to get here but I felt this was important to tell everyone. I was barely able to get this information because it was by complete chance that I ran into them. Yamato, Sai, and Kakashi are currently headed towards Kumo on a mission to find evidence or to locate Naruto and the Blue Flame."

Everyone gasped at this. Kakashi was the best tracker besides the entire Inuzuka clan.

"This is sooner than expected," Shikamaru thought aloud while rubbing his chin in thought.

"What do you mean Shikamaru?" The Hyuga heiress asked.

Shikamaru sighed and leaned back on both arms while looking up. "I thought Danzo would send out most of his personal ANBU out to find Naruto, I guess he just got impatient if he sent those three out together. This is also dangerous, now he is getting the regular ninja core involved this soon? This is unexpected. And why send them to Kumo? They have been the most threatened by how powerful our village has become."

"I can answer that one," Neji said. "Kakashi said along with looking for the Blue Flame he is to essentially make an alliance with Kumo against the Blue Flame."

Everyone was stunned. This was big news if the Hokage was asking for help, especially from Kumo where it is known that the Raikage and Hokage do not trust each other. Period.

Lee spoke up now. "So this is what you are telling me, our Hokage is trying to make an alliance with the Raikage to just eliminate Naruto-kun and the Blue Flame?"

Neji nodded slowly. "That sums it up."

Still in shock Kiba whispered, "Naruto is a dead man."

Hinata suddenly slapped Kiba hard on the shoulder. "Kiba, don't say such things!" In a very un-Hinata like way.

"That is actually a very accurate assessment." All attention turned back to Shikamaru. Hinata was about to say something when Shikamaru held up a hand silencing a berating from the Hyuga. "Hinata I do not mean to be insensitive but it is true. If the forces of both Konoha and Kumo were to join up, that is a major force to be reckoned with. They should have no problem finding at least some if not all of the Blue Flame. Plus, think about it, Naruto is our jinchuriki. As much as I hate Danzo for classifying Naruto as simply that, nothing more than a weapon, this means Naruto is a very high priority for Danzo. Plus I do not want to think about what happens when Danzo gets his hands on Naruto. Either way this is very bad. I have been trying to snoop around the intelligence community to maybe see if they might know of a better location to find Naruto in, unfortunately we got as far as Danzo has. Which is to say, nowhere."

"You're looking in the wrong place." Every head turned to the pinked hair medic. Her eyes were widened. She did not mean to say anything, it just came out. Maybe it was combination of her being so happy to see Naruto and her being exhausted from her day at the hospital that made her have no filter, which put her in this new predicament.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, looking over Sakura with a very analytical eye.

"How do you know that, Sakura?" asked her big breasted blonde best friend.

"Uhh…" Sakura had no idea what to say. Was she really going to blab that Naruto was here in the flesh, even if it was a shadow clone?

"Sakura." She came out of her musings and turned to look at the Nara sitting next to her. "What happened?"

Sakura sighed. Shikamaru was too smart for his own damn good. But the look he was giving her was not judgmental or anything like that, it was more surprise than anything else.

It was going to come out eventually, she might as well get it out now, there was no point in lying. "Naruto was in my apartment two nights ago."

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Said blond ninja was hopping from tree to tree, his blue-flamed coat flapping wildly as he and his small assembled team flew from branch to branch at the last bit of forest they had before they got near the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

 _What do you think Kurama?_ Naruto asked. _Do you feel him yet?_

 _ **I do.**_ Responded the Nine Tailed fox. **_But barely. He is still some distance away._**

 _Can he sense us?_

 _ **I am suppressing our essence to the point where it is almost undetectable…almost. He will able to sense something, but he will not know it is me until we get close enough.**_

Naruto physically nodded in understanding. He turned around to his comrades in arms. "We need to avoid the village as much as possible. Our target is located near the back of the village. Itachi." The raven haired man nodded. "You take point. Sneak us through their defenses and avoid patrols." Itachi launched himself in front of Naruto.

Konan got herself to beside Naruto. Without turning his head he looked at Konan out of the corner of his eye. "What's up?"

Konan studied him for a few seconds before responding. "What are you going to do if he refuses you?"

Naruto looked back ahead. Confidence written all over his face. As if he knew something no one else did not. "Don't worry. He won't refuse."

Konan frowned. She knew of Naruto's ability to make friends everywhere he went. She was evidence enough of that. She abandoned everything she had for him. For both of them. However, despite this, she was worried that this may be too much for them to handle.

Hopefully this does not get them killed.

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Three Konoha ninja began to slow their pace as they approached the gates of the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

Kakashi was in the lead. As they approached five Kumo ANBU agents appeared out of the ground. "Halt! State your business here Leaf nin!"

Kakashi slowly pulled out a paper from his pocket. "We are here on order from our Hokage to reach Lord Raikage for an audience."

One of the ANBU slowly approached and took the paper and began reading it.

"This is not needed!"

Everyone turned to see a formally dressed, dark skinned, busty, white haired woman approach with two regular Cloud ninja behind her. "Lord Raikage is expecting them."

The ANBU acknowledged them and parted to let them in.

The woman stepped forward. "He is waiting for you. This way."

The three Leaf ninja followed their guide in the village as the large gates closed behind them. Whether they wanted it or not, they were trapped.

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Back in Konoha, the meeting room in the Nara estate was dead quiet. Sakura just let out the biggest secret in the whole village. The village's most wanted man was here. Not only here, but standing in her apartment.

She was waiting for it. Finally the dam broke. Ino basically shouted, "WHAT?"

There it was. Now everyone was shouting, asking question, demanding to know every detail. Sakura just sat in silence letting all the question hammer into her.

"Why was he here?"

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Is he insane?"

"What did he say?"

"Did anything happen between you two?"

Sakura turned to her busty best friend and yell at her, but before she could- "QUIET!"

The group immediately silenced and turned to Neji, who somehow kept his calm demeanor.

"Let Sakura explain what happened."

Sakura nodded at Neji in thanks, which he returned. The pinkette sighed, focusing herself to tell them the very thing she was still wrapping her head around.

"Well… he took me by surprise." Started Sakura. "I attacked him."

Hinata, TenTen, and Ino all gasped. "You attacked him? What happened?"

Sakura could not help but roll her eyes. This could take forever. "I'm trying to tell you Ino!" Ino quietly apologized and Sakura continued. "I attacked him, but I could not land a hand on him. He was too quick. You should have seen him, he was incredible. Well, once we stopped, he explained to me he was just here to talk to me. He wanted to apologize to me, some of the things he said in front of the village was a lie. He does not hate us. He is only after Danzo. He wants to expose Danzo for who he really is. I told him we are trying to do that on the inside. He apparently already has people working for him inside the village."

Shikamaru could not help himself. "What? He as agents inside here? Did he tell you who?"

Sakura shook her head. "I asked him who but he refused to tell me. Just like before, in typical Blue Flame fashion he told me a lot without tell me much of anything. But he did reveal a little of his plans. His plans are to draw Danzo's attention away from the village for him to work on the inside, to basically overthrown Danzo using the village as a weapon."

If it was possible, every eyes got even wider!

"He's going to do…what?" Kiba slowly said in shock.

Sakura smirked and crossed her arms. "And we are going to help him."

"How Sakura-chan?" asked Lee passionately. Sakura growled at him for using the –chan. Ino did not miss this.

"Well if you want to know, we will continue doing what we were doing, but we will just aid in Naruto's venture when the time comes."

"And when, dear Sakura-chan, is that?" Ino asked mockingly.

After a little swat at Ino, Sakura answered her question…kind of. "When Naruto and his agents are ready."

Everyone almost deadpanned at this response. However Sakura was ready for them. "But he said the agent would reveal themselves when it was time. For now we just have to keep doing our parts. I know it sounds strange after everything that has happened, especially how Naruto made it seem like he no longer trust him, but everything that he has been doing has been for Konoha and her people. I know I might have wavered, but Naruto has never once failed us. I will repay him by completely trusting him."

Whether Sakura meant it or not, she inspired the rest of the group, giving them the confidence to keep pushing on with their little coup. Everyone was ready to do their part. Shikamaru calmly looked around at everyone present.

He could not help but smirk as his crossed his arms.

Even when that blond idiot was not here, his heart and actions were being felt. He was inspiring. A natural leader by example. How troublesome.

"I guess the real work begins now," spoke up Choji.

Neji nodded. "Yes, what is our next step?"

"Next step is to keep trying to secure information." Stated Shikamaru. "But I feel like we need to widen this circle just a bit."

TenTen raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?"

The future Nara head nodded. "I believe we need to start finding the people who would support our cause and Naruto's cause. Just find them out, we do not want to write anything down. Just identify them. I know, even though he was basically forced into his position, Sai will take Naruto's side when the time comes." Sakura nodded understanding. When Danzo rose to power, he used some sort of seal that was on Sai and the rest of the ROOT agents to bring them back into his service. Very few people ever see Sai. Ino, Sakura, and Shikamaru occasionally see him in the Hokage palace on guard duty. They say 'Hi' with the knowledge he cannot give one back because of his position. One of the few times Sakura saw Sai he said he appreciated the greetings. Sakura imagined Sai smiling under his mask when she said hi. It made her smile. "Try and stay away from our parents, I know it will be hard to hide this from them and not to drag them into this but most of them are clan heads. Clan heads and the clan itself cannot be punished for the act of only one person under Konoha law. As nice as it would be to have the backing of entire clans for our cause, if this somehow fails, their safety is guaranteed. If worse comes to worst I bet Naruto would not mind taking us in."

"Sakura-chan, do you have a way of communicating with Naruto-kun?" Lee asked. Again, not missed by Ino, Sakura growled at Lee for the –Chan addressment.

"No. He did not give me any way of communicating with him. I assume he will let his agents know to inform us when things are going to happen," Sakura explained with arms crossed over her chest. Ino noticed a little glimmer.

"So how did Naruto get in and out completely unnoticed?" Kiba brought up a good point. "Surely someone must have seen the most wanted man in the Leaf!"

Sakura smiled, chuckling a bit. She quoted her boyfriend. "It's hard to capture a Shadow Clone."

Shikamaru face palmed. Naruto would do something like that. Most of the group was chuckling at the brilliant idea of Naruto's.

"Ok, so are we agreed on just trying to find out who would support us and in a few weeks meet again to discuss who would help?" Sakura received 'hai's and nods to her proposal.

As everyone got up to leave, Ino grabbed on to Sakura's arm like she was a bird of prey who just caught a mouse. "You. Me. Talk. Your apartment. Now." There was just no arguing with Ino. Sakura left in the same fashion as she arrived, being dragged by an impatient blonde.

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Deep in ancient structure, a four man team was sitting in front of what looked to be just a dead end passage way. One sat cross legged in front of the wall, eyes closed in concentration while the other three stood either against the wall or just standing. In silence.

A groan echoed through the passage.

An evil look was thrown at the source of groan.

"Why are we just staring at a wall?"

Karin began to throw something at the walking water man when-

"Karin." The feisty redhead froze immediately. Sasuke turned slowly to look at Suigetsu. "It's all part of the plan."

…..Suigetsu sighed heavily, letting the weight of his head take over as he dramatically looked at the ground before looking up again. "You mean looking at a wall is part of the plan?"

Before Karin could snap on the white haired man again, as if on cue Sasuke said "Open," and the wall slowly started sinking into the ground.

Karin and Suigetsu stared at Sasuke with eyes larger than diner plates. How did he get it open?

The silent Jugo spoke up. "It was optically locked door. Only someone with the Sharingan could open it."

Sasuke slowly stood up using his sword as a makeshift cane. The Uchiha nodded at Jugo's statement. "Only one with the Sharingan can see what was written on the wall and figure out the puzzle on it."

The group knew that was all they were going to get from Sasuke as he started his first steps into the hallway that laid beyond the now collapsed wall. Their footsteps eerily echoed off the walls as they traveled down the barley lit corridor.

After what felt like miles of walking the corridor opened up into a large room. At the center of this room was situated a stone altar. Sasuke wasted no time in approaching the altar. But as they got closer, the altar appeared to be a sarcophagus. The squad stopped before it. Sasuke smiled. This was it. He had finally found it. Without hesitation Sasuke pushed the top off. The cover went crashing to the ground, breaking as it hit the hard floor. The sound reverberated back to the team, where everyone but Sasuke had to cover their ears.

Sasuke did not care about some loud noise. He was entranced by what his eyes laid upon.

A scroll.

Carefully, like a surgeon, Sasuke removed the scroll from the skeleton of one his dead ancestors. Sasuke delicately turned the scroll over his hands, examining it. A few particles of red hair came into Sasuke's view. "What is that Sasuke-kun?"

The fearless Uchiha turned on his heel to face the team. Karin was extremely close.

"This is going to capture the Nine-Tails."

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The door was slammed shut. The locks were locked in record time. Then the dragging of feet was heard, ending at the couch. Two plops of bodies were heard.

"You. Talk."

The pinkette just rolled her eyes. She was not even going to start talking because-

"Why didn't you tell me you saw Naruto? Are we best friends or not?" There it was. Ino always told you to talk then she would butt in. "You had a secret meeting with one of Konoha's most wanted men, in this apartment! He came back from the dead, challenged Danzo, then was in your apartment…"

Ino waited for Sakura to say something before she screamed, "WHAT HAPPENED?"

Sakura sighed before she looked over at Ino. Ino's eyes were constantly moving all over Sakura's face, waiting in anticipation for Sakura to confirm what Ino thought she knew.

"We talked." Sakura did not really want to talk about it just yet. Well, looks like she may have no choice in the matter at this point.

Ino slapped Sakura on the shoulder. "I knew that! But what else happened? I know something happened. You got all mad when Lee called you 'Sakura-chan', it was plainly obvious. So what happened?"

Ino's persistence with information was unmatched. Maybe that is why all Yamanakas were so good at mid walking. Persistence.

"Well…we admitted we like each other, as more than friends." Sakura hoped that would please the hunger for information.

"That's not all, something else happened."

Apparently not.

"We kissed."

Surprise suddenly took over Ino's face as she slapped both hands over her mouth, yet with this Sakura could easily hear her scream, "OH MY…TELL ME EVERYTHING!"

This was going to be a long night.

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The representatives of the Leaf were led through the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Every ninja and civilian alike were astonished to see the Leaf Ninja there. It was no secret among Kumo that they and Leaf did not get along, hence the all the stares the Leaf ninja were getting.

"Ignore them," said the white haired lady who was leading their group.

Finally the group reached the bottom of the tallest building. Kakashi had to crane his neck to catch a glimpse where he thought the Raikage was. The group was lead through a set of double doors flanked by ANBU.

After making their way up the building they arrived at the Raikage's office. The infamous A sat behind an overly large desk, to adjust for his size.

The three Leaf ninja stopped before the Raikage and all bowed.

"Lord Raikage, I am Kakashi Hatake, my companions are Yamato and Sai. We are-"

"I know why you are here," interrupted the Raikage.

The three stood up. Kakashi's eye narrowed. What did Danzo say in that letter?

"Lord Hokage told you of our mission?" Kakashi was skeptical. He might need to try the stepping lightly approach.

"No, he didn't," confirmed the ripped Raikage. "All he said in his letter was he was sending people to investigate my village. WHO THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS?" A stood up and shatter his desk in one punch. Papers and splinter flew everywhere as the desk shattered. Kakashi stood motionless, like this was a normal thing, while Yamato and Sai were suddenly hiding behind Kakashi, using him as a human shield against the Raikage's fury. The Raikage stared at Kakashi looking for… something. Kakashi looked back as if almost bored, not mocking but bored. Kakashi sighed. He would be a year's salary Danzo purposefully put him in this situation. So Kakashi put to use his second favorite past time, smooth talking out of situations.

"Forgive me, Lord Raikage but we were simply ordered to come here. I do not know the contents of what our Hokage sent you, but I can assure you, we are not here to make enemies. Our situation is obviously not in our favor. I am curious, Lord Raikage, what do you think we are doing here?"

Kakashi was studying A's face closely as he spoke. The Raikage may be a man driven by emotions, but if he ever played poker, he would be a tough opponent. He face did not reveal any secrets.

"Danzo claimed that his ninja were coming to simply check out the security of our village." The face on the Raikage was one of sheer disgust and insult.

Kakashi visibly sighed. He slowly spared the two people hiding behind him before looking at the powerful man standing in front of him. "I apologize for my Hokage's letter, as I am sure he did not mean to send anything that would tip off the people we were assigned to search for."

"You mean the mysterious group wearing blue-flamed, white coats?"

Kakashi was not too surprised that Kumo knew of them. Naruto had told him so. "So you know of them."

The Raikage turned and walked to look out the window over his village. "We have been searching for either them, their base, or any information on them. Unfortunately whichever village they came from trained them too well." He turned back to the Konoha visitors. "They have not directly affected our village. We had a squad out on a mission when they ran into them. They were not hostile towards us, but questioned my ninja. When they left, we tried pursuing them only to lose them. I sent out orders and ANBU to find out more information or find them. All attempts were failures. My orders are still to find them or any information about them. I take it this is why Konoha sent you here?"

Kakashi sighed. He would need to be very careful how he handled this. One wrong step and Naruto would have the Raikage and Kumo after him. The blond knucklehead owed Kakashi big time.

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Said knucklehead was leading his small team up steps carved into the mountain they were tracking up. The air whipped at their coats making the snap constantly. Naruto was leading the team up to a small structure that led to inside the mountain. He was drawn to it. Like a moth to fire. He was getting closer to his goal.

 ** _Do you feel him kit?_** Kurama was in the mindscape, sitting on his hind legs. He was ready for this. There was no sleeping or relaxing for this. Both host and beast had to be ready for the fight that was sure to come.

Naruto nodded.

He was ready. "Are you sure he is here?" Konan voiced her questions a few times. But she never sounded so worried. Maybe it was the fact they were entering a mountain about to find a wielder of one of the world's most dangerous beings to exist, being in a dangerous hostile territory, and was with two guys that always gave her heart attacks. Either way she was worried. Naruto was not.

Finally the team walked into a large room with one person in the middle of the room twirling blades around like it was second nature.

Naruto turned to his companions. "Stay here." Without further explanation he walked away from them.

Konan looked over at Itachi. "What is he going to do?"

Itachi skillfully was watching the sword dancer at the room who Naruto was walking towards. The man was very skilled.

As Naruto got closer the man finally noticed Naruto, and instantly sheathed all his swords at once, getting into a very weird standing position. Naruto stared into the googles of the man who was a bit shorter than he was.

"Yo, yo, yo. I say what are you doing here, come to find me, I see?" the man spoke in a weird rhyme.

"Hey Hachibi, I challenge you to a fight!"

Konan and Itachi's eyes widened. What the hell did Naruto just say?


	12. Announcement

Hey everyone! I am so beyond sorry that it was been so long since I last posted. Do not worry I HAVE NOT ABANDONED YOU OR THE STORY! I have just had a long string of bad thing happen to me. I actually had the whole next chapter written, but then my brother dropped my computer and it destroyed my hard drive and I lost EVERYTHING. And then thing went down hill from there. I was so disheartened it took me a while to find the will to write again when my computer got fixed.

I promise I am not done with the story. I was to post this for you guys to know that I am still here. I will still write more. Just and update for you. I am rewriting the latest chapter now. hopefully I can rewrite most of it.

I have the First little bit of the chapter for you so you can see, there is hope.

I love you all! Thank you so much for the support and dedication to this crazy story.

thank you,

stixz35

Cerulean eyes stared into the dark lenses of the Eight-tailed jinchuriki. A smirk plastered onto the face of the blonde sage.

Up above the two demon containers, Itachi and Konan watched what just transpired before them in utter shock and disbelief. Konan's head whipped around to stare into the Uchiha's eyes.

"Did you know about this?" Konan growled at him.

Itachi did not particularly like the way Konan essentially accused him of knowing what the world's most unpredictable ninja was going to do. How annoying.

Suddenly a noise was heard behind the two of the rogues. Both quickly twisted around to take on a would-be attacker. Slowly from the dark tunnel, the other member of their little squad revealed herself from dark tunnel. The other two relaxed at the identification of the friendly.

Konan's jaw then dropped at what Mia was doing.

"What are you doing?" Konan almost screamed out.

Reaching in, Mia removed more chips to pop into her mouth. "It was at the entrance in a nice basket waiting to be eaten." She then continued to eat.

Konan slapped her head with her hand while shaking her head.

"We are trying to recruit him to our cause at the cost of our lives and you just decided to stop and eat part of his lunch?" Konan's logic was sound. Itachi mentally agreed with her but infamously remained silent.

"What? I'm hungry."

Itachi rolled his eyes and turned back to the about to brawl demon containers. "You're always hungry."


End file.
